Some People Make the Future
by The Disappearing Me
Summary: Some people make the future. Others wait for it to come to them. Mal and his crew have always been more for making than waiting, but they make an exception when the future shows up on their doorstep in the form of a mysterious girl. Canon pairings. I'll try to update monthly, but no guarantees. Chapter 8, The Judgment of Solomon, up!
1. An Unexpected Surprise

**A/N:** So I've had this idea rolling around in my head for a while now about how adding an OC (the details of whom will be revealed shortly) would change a story. I couldn't get the thought out of my head, so I wrote it and I really like the way it's turning out. Chapters will start out short, but I anticipate them getting longer in the future.

Story starts at what would have been the beginning(ish) of Shindig, shortly after they've landed on Persephone.

**Disclaimer:** Joss Whedon is awesome, and obviously I don't own or profit from any of his awesome show.

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><p>She appeared as out of nowhere. One minute Mal was mentally tallying the odds of their getting work on Persephone, and the next there was a girl on Serenity's ramp. The fact that she'd managed to get so close to their hold without his noticing was impressive enough – the fact that she'd managed to do so in a cumbersome wheelchair, of all things, made Mal worry he was beginning to drop his guard a bit too low on Persephone. While the planet was certainly one of their more frequent destinations, it would not do to get attached, as he firmly reminded himself.<p>

Mal surveyed the girl before deciding what to do with her. Pale skinned, good posture – hallmarks of having been raised on a Core planet. The brunette was slight of build and couldn't have seemed less physically threatening if she'd tried – yet, something about the look on her face made Mal instantly wary. His gut told him the girl meant trouble, and Mal always listened to his gut.

Mind made up, Mal pivoted to address her.

"'Scuze me, Miss, but you seem to have misplaced yourself," he said, in an outwardly jovial manner that nonetheless made his displeasure clear. "We're not taking passengers."

"Oh, I'm not a passenger," she replied steadily, meeting his eyes. "I'm crew."

Mal's face contorted in an expression of sardonic disbelief before he smiled cynically and said, "Either I misheard you or you're on the wrong boat, because I know my crew and you ain't one of 'em."

"I will be," the girl said, with the kind of certainty that could make a man question whether the sky was blue.

"And why," Mal asked, patience wearing thin, "would I even want you on my boat in the first place, much less as crew? Doesn't seem as you'd be much use," he added, staring pointedly at her wheelchair.

"Eventually, it will be because you care about me. In the shorter term, you'll have me on because I'm worth my weight in gold, whether you realize it yet or not. And in the immediate period, it'll be because your current crew is headed back here now, Feds hot on their heels, and if you don't take me with you I'll tell the Feds all the information I have on you and your crew."

"Listen lady, I don't know what you think you know about me – "

"- Malcolm Reynolds, captain of this boat. Records suggest you're 49, but you're actually 31. Born on Shadow, sergeant for the Independents during the war, current smuggler – need I go on?" the girl asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Because we really need to get going if we're going to avoid the Feds."

"他妈的混蛋！"Mal swore colorfully. He knew in his gut the girl was telling the truth about the Feds, or at least believed she was telling the truth and that was enough for him. He flipped the switch on the comm. "Listen, Wash, we may have a situation down here. Get ready for a quick exit if things turn bad."

He barely registered Wash's reply, he was so focused on the problem at hand. As if on cue, Kaylee, Zoe, and Jayne burst into view, out of breath from having raced to get back.

"Captain, we've got a problem," Kaylee burst out. The remaining two crew members slowed as they approached the ship and sized up the mysterious new girl, Zoe because she'd (correctly) assessed her to be a threat, and Jayne because apparently his lecherous nature didn't mind if a girl was able bodied or not.

"Feds are after us!" Kaylee continued, voice awash with emotion. "I don't know what we did, but Zoe caught one of them tailing us on the way back here. We don't have long before they're – "

" – I get the idea, Kaylee, thank you," Mal said, externally calm, internally fighting the urge to punch something. "Wash," he said, pushing the comm button again, "that take off would be great any time now."

"Anything for you, captain," Wash said, ever cheerful, although an undercurrent of tension was evident in his voice, no doubt wondering at the cause for this sudden change in plans.

"Zoe, button her up," Mal said, quickly deciding on a plan of action and feeling the better for it. "Jayne, watch our newest 'passenger'. Keep her here in the hold, don't take your eyes off her."

"No problem," Jayne said, with an obvious leer at the girl.

"On second thought, swap with Zoe," Mal said, thinking better of his original plan. Jayne looked as though he meant to object, then beheld the hard look in the captain's eyes and moved to obey, grumbling all the while. Zoe moved to cover the girl, steely eyed and gun unholstered.

"You'd best have a good explanation," Mal told the girl dispassionately, voice loud enough to be heard over the whirring as the ramp closed. "Or you've just signed your own death warrant."

"You won't kill me," the girl replied, as steadily as ever.

"Maybe you don't know me as well as you think," Mal replied, before leaving her at Zoe's mercy.

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><p><strong>AN:** I just really liked ending it at that line...it just felt so Mal to me. Please review. I'm really getting into this story and it's flowing for me in a way no other story has done before. Moreover, unlike everything else I've ever written (save for tiny one-shot) I actually have the whole (broad version) of the plot already mapped out. The whole thing. So no possibilities for plot bunnies to besiege me and hold the plot hostage because, well, I already have it all. I can't wait to hear your reactions to the plot as it unfolds, because it's fairly twisty and fun. :)

Please review!


	2. Questions to be Answered

Thanks for sticking with the story, if you're still here! Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is all Joss Whedon's. And because I'm tired already of typing this, this disclaimer applies to this and all future chapters of this fic.

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><p>"Aaaand we're good," Wash said, leaning back in his jump chair, arms crossed jauntily behind his neck. "Well on our way to Triumph, where no one'd think to look for us."<p>

"No tails?" Mal asked, double checking despite already knowing the answer.

"Nary a one," Wash replied lightly, brushing off Mal's questioning of his professional judgment (which would normally have had him bristling) in favor of questioning Mal himself. "If you don't mind my asking, Captain, what the hell happened back there?" he asked, his tone ending rather less sweetly than it began.

"Don't rightly understand it myself," Mal said, annoyance creeping in under his calm facade. "But we're about to find out." He pivoted and swept down the stairs, Wash belatedly moving to follow him. Mal was on a mission and he wasn't about to stop and wait for his pilot to catch up.

As Mal passed the infirmary, Simon stuck his head out. "If you don't mind my asking, Captain, what happened? Did the Alliance find us?" he asked worriedly.

Boy had a one track mind when it came to threat assessment, though he was right more often than not. "Not exactly," Mal replied tersely. He didn't offer any more information – not that he knew much more himself – nor did he slow his stride any, forcing the younger man to rush to catch up. Wash shot Simon a look of sympathy, but he didn't slow either.

The hold came into view, looking much like Mal had left it. Zoe covered the girl with unmasked suspicion, while Jayne looked at her with unmasked desire. Seeing Jayne's look, Mal assessed the girl again and found her to be quite attractive at second glance. Pretty enough face, at least, with large eyes, dark red cupid bow lips, and silky straight brown hair that pooled down into her lap on top of her delicate, motionless hands.

Yes, he'd have to watch Jayne around the girl. Mal'd planned on assigning him guard duty after this, and his plan hadn't changed, but he'd certainly have to keep a closer eye on Jayne to make sure he wasn't…distracted. Pretty or not, the girl was a threat and needed to be treated as such. The girl in question, for her part, looked just as implacable as before, either not noticing Jayne's leer or doing an impeccable job of ignoring him. She didn't so much as flinch as Mal stopped to stand in front of her, either, although Mal knew he cut an intimidating figure.

"Explaining time. I was all set to make myself some good cashy money," Mal said, with an air of forced patience. "And now I'm out in the middle of no and where with nothing in my pocket, and no goods on my ship, save for one girl who happens to be the cause of my previously listed problems. You can see how that might make a man a bit angry. And when I'm angry, I do things I might regret," Mal said threateningly, hoping to scare a reaction out of her.

"My apologies, Captain," the girl said, not sounding at all apologetic. "But that was the best outcome I could manage that satisfied both our needs. And I assure you, I'll make up for it."

"Sir, if the girl's a threat, we could always just drop her off on Triumph. The settlers would be happy enough to make sure she never left planet, and I'd be happy to be rid of her," Zoe said evenly. Whatever had happened in the hold between the time Mal left it and now had apparently not endeared the girl to Zoe.

"I'm beginning to wonder if we should even wait that long to get rid of her," Mal mused openly. He would never kill anyone who wasn't a threat to himself and his crew, particularly not a young woman, but the girl didn't know that and he was hoping to break her composure a bit. That certainty of hers was damned unsettling. Made him think she had more surprises up her sleeve…which she probably did.

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a second!" Wash cried, as always failing to read Mal's true intentions. "I don't know the whole story, but given that everyone's in one piece and she looks all of nineteen, what the girl's done can't be enough to deserve a spacing."

"What did happen, exactly?" Shepherd asked calmly, coming to join the arranged crew and defusing the tension before Mal could put Wash in his place.

"If I had a steak for every time someone asked me that question," Mal muttered to himself, before continuing. "Girl seems to have set the Feds down on us in Persephone. The how and why I am somewhat unclear about. But I'm sure she'd be more than happy to explain the whole thing to us. And it best be a mighty fine explanation."

"It is," the girl agreed. "The how is through a false tip, which will shortly be determined to be erroneous. The why was that you're the only ship to harbor and care for fugitives," here she inclined her head to indicate Simon, "that has shown a repeated history of being able to keep them hidden from the Feds, and towards whose crew I would not pass along a heightened level of threat from the Alliance."

"So you're a fugitive, then?" Mal said, the whole crew – for once – blessedly silent as he proceeded with his make-shift interrogation. "And here I thought you were signing on as crew," he continued sardonically.

"The Hell did a girl like you do to become a fugie?" asked Jayne, coarse and to the point as always.

"Me?" the girl asked rhetorically. "I won a chess tournament."

Mal shook his head, as though trying to clear it of all the extraneous variables threatening to cloud his view of the situation. "Look, let's start with the basics. What makes you not a threat to me and mine?"

"The folk after me are the same folk after River," the girl said, her confident veneer starting to fade, although she slapped it back on quickly. "They have a very particular way they go about doing things. Having two of us on board isn't going to be much more dangerous than just the one."

"Wait – so you were at the Academy, too, then," Simon said, cutting of Mal as he was opening his mouth to point out that he hadn't missed that qualifier. Not much more dangerous, indeed. "How'd you escape?"

Mal thought of interrupting him, to remind the boy that he was the one in charge of this interrogation, thank you very much, but found himself wanting to know the answer too much to contest the thwarting of his will.

"I had help," the girl said shortly, fighting back her first glimmer of true emotion but not revealing anything else.

"And what would make you so valuable to my crew, the way you said earlier?" Mal said, having calmed a great deal during this conversation. Now that he'd established the girl wasn't a (direct) threat to him and his crew, the part of his brain that had been drilled in being chivalrous to needy women was starting to try and speak up, and he was finding it increasingly hard to shove it back down.

"I can predict the future," the girl said, face void of any sign of deception.

"Like, with crystal balls?" Jayne asked confusedly. The girl rolled her eyes, but didn't deign to reply. At least she seemed to have a sense of humor, even though she was obviously 疯了.

"You can't rightly expect a man to believe that," Mal said flatly.

"It's the truth," the girl said. "Give me a week or so, or even a mere day and I can prove it. But in the meanwhile, trust in your gut because I'm sure it knows I'm telling you the truth."

Damned if the girl wasn't right, much to Mal's displeasure. Around them, the crew began to murmer.

"你们都闭嘴！" Mal called out, exerting his authority. The crew fell silent around him, for once, blessedly, having listened to his orders.

"Look," he said, addressing the girl. "I don't know you. And I ain't so certain I believe your story. Hell, I know I don't believe your story. You have until we get to Triumph to convince me otherwise, to prove you're not a threat and can be an asset to this crew. If you convince me, I may let you stay on. But if I'm not convinced by the time we get there, we go with Zoe's plan. And if you step so much as one toe out of line in the meanwhile," he said threateningly, although immediately regretting the metaphor, "I reserve the right to toss you out the airlock."

The crew began to talk amongst themselves again, his words having stirred them up, but Mal didn't care anymore as he strode out of the hold.

"You have three days," Mal called over his shoulder. "Best get started."

"Thank God," the girl said feebly, showing the first sign of weakness since she'd made her way onto the boat earlier in the day. Then she promptly slumped in her chair, unconscious.

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><p>Thanks to CreativeReading and LoneWolfOneill for the reviews, they were greatly appreciated and gave me the kick that I needed to post this latest chapter. :)<p> 


	3. Reactions

Disclaimer still applies. Enjoy!

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><p>Normally on the ship, Simon Tam felt like one part errant child, the other part stranger. He was still trying to figure out where he fit in Serenity's dynamic – and still harbored fears of the captain changing his mind about keeping him – so he was always on his toes. It was enough to make even the calmest of people somewhat anxious, and it was enough to keep Simon constantly on edge.<p>

But now, hovering over the mysterious girl, that edge was all but forgotten. There Simon was in his own domain, the infirmary. It was the one place on the ship where others deferred to him, although Simon had yet to decide whether that deferral was due to the fact that his expertise in medicine was unparalleled on the boat, or whether it was that he himself changed in the infirmary.

Whatever the cause, Simon certainly felt the mantle of his role at the moment, which kept his mind on the task of examining the girl as opposed to allowing it to stray into the endless questions and possibilities his mind offered him in light of her appearance.

He frowned and lifted his stethoscope off the girl's chest as Kaylee knocked on the wall.

"Mind if I come in?" she asked, eyes already fixated on the girl's prone body.

"Sure," Simon said distractedly, moving to re-read the summary of the findings of his exam, as though hoping they would divulge more this time than the last. Kaylee entered, brushing past Jayne who was slumped along the wall next to the door. The captain had wanted to take every precaution lest the girl wake up, which had meant putting Jayne on guard duty and binding the girl's arms and legs, despite how unnecessary it seemed. Best not to take chances, the captain had said.

"She gonna be all right?" Kaylee asked, motioning to the girl bound across his examining table.

"Well, that's the odd thing," Simon said, brow furrowing. "According to everything I've found, there's nothing wrong with her – she's the perfect picture of health."

"She don't look healthy," Kaylee said worriedly, chewing her lip.

"Well, her muscles have certainly decayed due to lack of use, but I can't see a reason for her to be unable to use them in the first place. Of course, the tests I have to work with here are certainly primitive, so I could certainly be missing something," Simon said. "There is, however, one discrepancy I've noticed."

"A what?" Jayne asked. "Use English, damn it!"

"What kind of discrepancy?" Kaylee prompted gently, ignoring Jayne and getting the conversation back on track.

"Well," Simon said, finally looking up from his clipboard, "she had vestiges of adrenaline in her system. Too high to be natural."

"What does that mean?" Kaylee asked, beating Jayne to the punch.

"Between that and the puncture mark on her thigh, I suspect it means that she was pumped full of adrenaline before coming here," Simon replied. "It's just speculation, but the effects of the adrenaline wearing off might have caused her to black out."

"Why would she want to do a thing like that?" Kaylee asked.

"I don't know," Simon said slowly. "What's confusing me, though, is if she really did go through the Academy, why isn't she more like River? When she was talking, she just seemed so…" Simon trailed off, grasping for the right word.

"Normal?" Kaylee asked, her voice compassionate.

"Not crazy?" Jayne called from the door.

Simon shook his head. "Whole," he said, softly.

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><p>"The girl's a threat, sir," Zoe said, opening the informal crew meeting. They'd intended to talk just the two of them, but by virtue of their meeting in the cockpit the discussion had inevitably expanded to include Wash. By the time the Shepherd joined them there was no use in even pretending it was a private discussion anymore.<p>

"That she is," Mal said seriously. "But what type of threat and the solution, that I ain't so sure of."

"What do you mean, threat?!" Wash asked, as always first in line to disagree with the captain. "The girl couldn't hurt a fly, even if she wanted to."

"The Alliance is not above using spies and appearances can be deceptive," Zoe said evenly. "This could be a trap."

"Or she could be just who she says she is, and we're threatening to toss an innocent, albeit obviously crazy, girl out the airlock or maroon her!" Wash exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air.

"I'm not so sure that her claim is all that 'crazy'," Shepherd said. "The Alliance was obviously experimenting on River for some reason, even if we don't know it yet. Maybe that's what they were doing - making it so that she could read the future."

"No offense to River, but she's pretty 疯了 herself, so comparing this girl to her makes it sound more like she's crazy, not less," Wash said. "Look, personally, the whole reading the future thing is a load of hooey. But that doesn't change the fact that she's a kid that needs our protection."

"I ain't so sure the girl's not crazy, myself, although I'm more inclined to think she's a liar," Mal said. "But be that as it may, what matters to me right now is that chances are still high she's a threat."

"How will you be able to determine what to do with her?" Shepherd asked, ever the voice of reason.

"Watch. And wait," Mal replied. "Three day's journey to Triumph. Not as much time to interrogate her as I'd like, but it's enough."

"We should attempt to verify as much of her story as we can before then – maybe ask River if she knows her," Shepherd added, only to be met by skeptical looks all around.

"Ain't likely the girl would be able to tell us even if she did," Mal said. "Where'd that girl get to, anyhow?"

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><p>River felt too much. The <em>tide<em> was carrying her away, across its threshold like a bride. **The Academy**, pushed _down_, coming up again like a triumphant _villain_. But _the villain_ never triumphed, there must always be a failure in the system. **Danger**, **danger**! But she would fight,** the other half** would show the way. River would function. She read the pages, _knew_ the story. Knew too many stories. _Closed_ the book, bed time story over. No **mother **and **father** to kiss goodnight. Lights out, dark, everything dark, **Mommy I can't see**! But _light_ has come again. Dream, yearn, wish, want, _hope_ shined bright.

And River smiled.

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><p>Jayne stood, feet planted firmly in front of the cabin door. Ordinarily, this cabin belonged to Simon, but it had been turned into a makeshift brig, an idea the doc hadn't been too keen on. Jayne hoped the girl would smash everything inside, had even told Simon as much. Unfortunately, that damn girl hadn't so much as moved a muscle, even when they were carrying her in here. Mal'd told Jayne he was on guard duty 'til she woke up. At first he'd thought guard duty would be fun, what with him alone with a pretty girl an' all. But two hours later Jayne was starting to wonder if he'd be standing there all night. 肏，he was bored.<p>

"How's the girl doin'?" Kaylee called, coming down the stairs. Immediately Jayne perked up. Maybe she'd keep him company! Kaylee was one of the only crew members that Jayne actually liked. Everyone liked her, but that was easy to understand. Not liking Kaylee was like not liking steak – you'd have to be crazy not to. Gorram it, now Jayne was hungry.

"She ain't so much as twitched this whole time," Jayne groused. "Hey, you got any protein on ya? I'm starved."

"Can't say as I do," Kaylee said regretfully, almost drooping a little. She perked up as an idea occurred to her. "But I can go to the kitchen and whip you up somethin'!"

This, Jayne thought fondly, was why it was impossible not to like Kaylee. "Would ya? Mal stuck me on guard duty."

She didn't reply, eyes glued to the door behind him. "She's awake!" Kaylee chirped excitedly.

"Well I'll be damned," Jayne said, wondering just how long the girl'd been up. "Go tell Mal, maybe now he'll let me off."

"Get everyone," a quiet voice came from the cabin. Jayne jumped in surprise.

"他妈的混蛋," he cursed fluently in an attempt to cover up his jumpiness as he wondered just how long the girl'd been listening. "What'd you have to go and be all creepifying for?" he called into the cabin.

"Sorry," she said softly. "But I've got a story to tell and I may as well get it over with." Jayne might have thought he was imagining the girl's voice, it was so quiet, but, no, Kaylee was running off to get everyone now, so she'd heard it, too. As Kaylee raced off, Jayne belatedly remembered something.

"Hey!" he hollered after Kaylee. "Don't forget about my protein!"

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><p>Inara wasn't so sure about this whole situation. She'd been about to leave to meet with a client when as fast as she had touched down Serenity was taking off again. Inara had been forced to spend the whole morning apologizing to her client. ("My humblest apologies for the cancellation. I can only hope you'll still wish to meet with me when I next arrive. No, no the loss is mine at not being able to see such an illustrious gentleman as you," she'd said, delivering that last line with as straight a face as she could. Atherton could be a dear, but he also thought very highly of himself, and flattery was the quickest way back into his good graces.)<p>

Worse yet, she'd had to contact the Guild and alert them to the change. She hated speaking with any Guild representatives, hated it because beneath all the calm demeanor and soothing words, the message was still there. 'Why did you leave Sihnon? Come back to us and leave those rough moons behind,' the worried eyes always said. Inara knew the answer to that question would leave the eyes even more worried, so she never replied.

And 他妈的, Mal had given them yet another excuse to ask her that, lifting off without even giving her warning. To calm herself, she had spent the remainder of the day bathing, dressing, and making tea. She would have to have a meeting with him to remind him that theirs was a business arrangement that couldn't be overruled so easily by whatever had caused him to take off without so much as a 请.

And for any meeting with Mal, Inara wanted to look her best. Not because she was attracted to him, of course, she reassured herself. It was because controlling the environment and one's appearance was a Companion's greatest weapon. Her dress may only seem a garment to some, but to Inara it was equivalent to battle armor, which was why she'd chosen it. (And because it was in Mal's favorite color, Inara's mind traitorously suggested, but she shoved that thought down.)

Her door slid open. "Mal!" she gasped, collecting herself. "Would it kill you to knock?!" Her plans to calmly discuss their business arrangement were shattered before they'd even begun.

"I'll explain on the way," Mal said tersely, not even glancing at the outfit she'd so carefully arranged. (Why wouldn't he look? Any other man would.) "We're headed down to the cabins, I think Her Highness has finally deigned to talk to us."

"Her Highness?" Inara asked, thrown off-balance.

"As I said, I'll explain on the way," Mal replied. Inara climbed to her feet, slipping on a shawl and slippers with speed and grace as only a Companion could. She turned to look at him, composing her face.

"Oh, and, uh, sorry about earlier," Mal said, rubbing the back of his neck. And with that, Inara's anger flushed away as though it was never there. She could never stay angry with him for long.

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><p>AN: So there it is, chapter 3, just a glimpse into the reactions of pretty much all the crew members regarding this turn of events. I had fun writing this, especially River. To write her, I just let my ADD mind run amok which meant it jumped all over the place making connections that probably wouldn't seem related to an outside mind...which works because that's how River talks. We won't be hearing too much from her for a while, though - I seem to be pulled more towards writing Mal's POV because a) it's fun and b) of everyone on the ship, his reactions to things are the most important and he makes sense in more situations.

It was also surprisingly fun writing Inara. I've never gotten in her head before and I found it's a much more interesting place than I thought. And Simon, who's another character I seem to be gravitating towards. Basically, I just like writing everyone, it's been really fun.

As I predicted, the chapters are starting to get longer. Impressively, I have another long chapter already written out. Yes, that's right, you'll finally get to hear the girl's whole story next chapter!

Even cooler from a writer's point of view, I have the whole plot mapped out not. And not to brag or anything, but it's really cool with multiple layers and twists and general excitement and awesomeness. It makes me SUPER happy!

Anyways, as always please keep reading and reviewing! :)


	4. Story Time

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns this.

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><p>Mal stood in the common area, waiting for the girl to speak. Around him, the crew sat or stood, each according to their nature. The wary ones, like Mal himself, Zoe, and, oddly enough, the Shepherd and Inara, stood. The rest of the crew had all just plopped themselves into chairs or on the floor ringing the couch, as though this was story time in primary school. Mal was thankful that at least some of his crew realized the girl was a threat, her appearance to the contrary, but he wished the rest would show more caution. Swearing to himself, he realized he'd have a battle on his hands if he decided to kick the girl off.<p>

The girl herself was more lying on the couch than sitting on it. She was supported all around by more pillows than Mal had thought the ship possessed, but her head, the only part of her not propped up, listed to the side, as if what little effort required to keep it up in the air was too much for her. It might well be, from the looks of her. He hadn't gotten a good look at her before, but now Mal realized the girl was wan, skin almost translucent for lack of sunlight, and even thinner than she'd first appeared. It was a shocking contrast with the girl who'd stared him down in the hold, and Mal found himself wishing that girl was back challenging him once more, in place of the broken girl who lay in front of him now.

Simon had told her about the adrenaline in her system, and Mal had immediately identified it as what had given the girl her 'strength', if you could even call it that, from before. He had used the stuff on many a soldier to help keep them alive. Hell, Mal himself had been dosed with it before the war turned and supplies ran out. But he never suspected the girl would be using it just to keep herself upright.

"Sorry about all this," the girl said, her voice as soft as a breeze. Apparently her weakness wasn't confined to just her body. "I just figured, well, we might as well get started. There are a lot of things I have to tell you, and I'm sure you all have a lot of questions as well."

"That we do," Mal said, voice commanding, but he restrained himself from saying more in favor of letting the girl continue.

"I really don't know where to start," the girl said, eyes looking around at everyone gathered there. "What do you want to know?"

"Why don't we start with your name?" the Sheperd suggested kindly, as Mal realized, much to his surprise, that he didn't even know what the girl was called yet.

"Esther," the girl said quietly. "I don't have a last name. Folk back home just called me Sarah's daughter."

"And where is home?" Kaylee asked, encouraging the girl to open up.

"Hera," Esther said, even more quietly than before if that was possible. Mal knew the reason. Besides Shadow (Mal put that thought quickly out of his head) Hera was the most devastated by the war, given its strategic position. Now the only thing the planet was good for was the graves of the dead. (The graves of men he'd failed to save, his mind whispered.)

"The Alliance found me there," the girl continued unprompted, her voice growing ever so slightly stronger. "I lived in a small township, if you could even call it that, out in the middle of no and where. But I was a bright girl. I started playing chess when I was four and I could always predict the winning strategy, so I never lost a game. Made a lot of money for Mama that way off of folk who'd bet on games, 'least til they got wise. A year later the supply of money in our area ran dry, so Mama started taking me to a larger city, Eveston, most every week.

It was a day long trip, but Mama said it was worth it. Folk there had more money to bet, you see. Eventually someone there suggested she enter me into a chess tournament. There was a big prize for the winner, so of course she did. With no man to put bread on the table, she needed money to feed all my brothers and sisters. She said that prize would feed us for a year, told me I had to win it. I did. I've spent my whole life regretting it," Esther said bitterly. No one had dared to interrupt her.

"The Alliance found you," Simon supplied.

"Yes. They came to the house, told my Mama they were going to take me away to some fancy academy. They needn't have bothered lying to her. One less mouth to feed? She was already happy with that prospect, and she bargained them into giving her plenty of cash, to compensate the family for the loss of my income. Then she let them take me, without so much as a goodbye or a backward glance. I was six," Esther said softly. The crew sat in hushed silence around her, knowing what would happen next.

"The academy wasn't so bad at first," Esther continued. "I really was taking classes, and there were other children with me, too. I made friends with some of them and those first few weeks were some of the happiest of my life. The only difficult part was the tests we'd take. We'd have to take what we learned about in class, say, how the situation was on Higgins' Moon or something like that, and then predict how it'd turn out. The scenarios got harder each week, but they weren't so bad for me. But then I started noticing, see, how after every test we had there'd be at least one less student, sometimes two. The 'teachers' said they'd gone home, and I wanted to believe them," she said, the yearning still evident in her voice so many years later.

"But then one of my friends disappeared," Esther continued, her voice flat. "We'd promised that no matter what happened, if one of us went home we'd write the other. She meant her promise, too. Only, I didn't get a single letter from her. A mind that was so good at predicting things, I figured out what was happening. Looking back, I realize the signs were there all along, but I just hadn't wanted to believe they could be true. My best friend disappearing was just the last straw. I confronted the teachers, in front of everyone. And you know what they did? They _congratulated me_ for figuring it out," she choked, dark fury and grief evident in her words.

"And then they killed all the other children," Esther said, her voice growing quiet. "Not in front of me, of course, but the next day they were all gone and I knew what had happened. I'd passed the last test, and they didn't care about those that failed."

The crew sat, in horror. They'd known the Alliance was bad, had thought what happened to River was terrible. But this? This was a whole new degree of horrifying. Mal noticed, surveying the crew's reaction, that every one of them seemed moved by her story. Simon looked as angry as he'd ever seen the boy. Kaylee was crying softly. Even Jayne seemed upset, having taken to rather savagely playing with his pocket knife. Hell, Mal himself could feel his blood boiling. Fighting a war with adults was one thing. Messing with River, that was another. Killing off children because they flunked some kinda test? Mal hadn't thought his hatred of the Alliance could grow any more, but it turns out it could.

"Soon, though, I realized the children they'd killed were the lucky ones," Esther revealed. Now that she'd started talking, she seemed unable to stop. "After a week of solitary confinement, one day they came to my room. They took me, and they operated on me, no anesthesia. Put something like a data rod in my brain. It was my fifth birthday, and the doctor joked and said it was a present, that it'd help me make better predictions. Told me I should thank him. I didn't," she said flatly.

"After the rod was in they used it to cram information into me, important people, history, events," Esther continued. "If you asked me now, I could tell you the complete life story of every major player and the details of every event on all the planets and moons, going back to when they were first founded. Information like that is too much to fit in a normal brain, which is why they needed the rod. It worked, too. With it, I could predict most any event they wanted."

"That how you escaped?" Zoe asked in spite of herself. "Predicted a way out?"

"No, not really," Esther said, much to Mal's surprise. "Like I said before, I had to have help. See, they can't have their weapons escaping. With River, they needed her body whole, so they altered her brain," she said, looking apologetically at the dark shadow behind the door where Mal hadn't realized River was standing. He'd have to watch that girl more closely.

"With me, they needed my mind whole, so they crippled my body," Esther went on to say. "Not permanently, mind you. The Alliance doesn't like to do anything they can't undo. They bound my arms and legs together so my muscles would degrade. And they drugged me, in my food, to make me weak. And if that wasn't enough to keep me from escaping, they added on a special something to the rod. A pain switch, designed to put me in agony at the touch of a button. They liked using it, too," she said, shuddering at memories (long?) past. "I couldn't so much as twitch a finger, much less escape."

"Who helped you get out, then?" Simon asked, obviously wondering if it was the same people who had helped River escape.

"One of the jailors seemed to take pity on me more than the others. Over the years, we grew closer and closer. We couldn't really talk, of course. I could only speak for short stretches of time, I was so weak, and he couldn't say much because our communication was monitored. Still, we talked as much as we could, and let the eyes do the rest of the talking. And one day after all those years, he decided to set me free. He'd…" here the girl trailed off, trapped in memories too painful to think of.

Esther collected herself and tried again. "He'd heard me screaming," she said finally. "He knew that I hated screaming, hated allowing them to see my weakness, see how they could hurt me. I went years without screaming, even when they used the pain switch. But this…this was different. For the first time, I had openly defied my minders, lied to them when they asked me to predict something. They were furious. I don't know how long they left the switch on, but it felt like hours. I thought I'd go crazy from the pain," she said, echoes of horror still in her eyes.

"Most of them enjoyed hearing me scream, but it infuriated him," Esther continued. "He told me later that he'd pleaded with them to turn it off, said they'd punished me enough, but they wouldn't. So when they left, he turned it off himself. I don't remember how we got out – as soon as he turned off the switch I passed out – but when I woke up, it was just the two of us on a small ship."

"Where is he now?" Jayne asked. Mal cursed the man's stupidity; he already knew the answer wouldn't be pleasant.

"He's gone," Esther said, surprising Mal who would have bet money she was going to say the man was dead. "He got me situated on Persephone and then he fled. I tried to convince him it was safer to stay, that he should come with me, but he wouldn't listen. The odds of his survival…are not good," she said, her voice bleak.

The only person who'd ever shown her a kindness and he abandoned her for what was sounding like an almost certain death? Mal was surprised the girl was dealing with that as well as she was. Then again, the girl's composure made her hard to read.

"How did you find our ship?" Mal asked, mind set, as always, on protecting his crew. If there were any vulnerabilities that could leave them open to being caught by the Alliance, he needed to know.

"That was the reason they were torturing me, actually," Esther revealed. "They wanted me to predict where River was. I couldn't let them harm her, though, so I lied. Sent them running off to Shadow, of all places, to look for you. They believed it because they thought the ability to lie had been beaten out of me years ago, but eventually they found I'd led them astray. They were…angry," Esther said, shuddering a little, eyes again lost in memories of the past.

Now Mal felt like an even bigger ass than he already had. Girl'd been hurt protecting them, and here he had her bound and was threatening to throw her to the wolves. Mal had to fight with himself not to promise to protect her right then and there. Compassion was well enough, but it could get his crew killed if it turned out the girl was lying, Mal reminded himself. The thought sobered him, but only just.

"I had Marcus – that was his name – take me to your most likely location and I waited for you to arrive," the girl continued. "You were already harboring two fugitives; odds were high you'd be willing to take more."

"We haven't decided on that yet," Zoe said smoothly, as the crew turned to look at her. Most of their eyes were shocked that she could say something so cold-hearted; Mal's were warm with appreciation for her sticking with him. There was a reason Zoe was his right hand woman. "Captain asked you before, and I'll ask you again; are you a threat to us?"

"No more than River," Esther said, her head wobbling in what Mal interpreted as an attempt to shake it no. The girl was so strong a personality, it was easy to forget her physical weakness. "The Alliance has to be subtle about its experiments – most of the Alliance members who aren't in the know would rebel to hear about it, let alone the common folk who aren't part of the Alliance. Now instead of having three men after you, at the worst you may have five. And you have me to help you evade them."

"Later you'll tell us more about those men," Mal said, leaving no room for question. "I don't like the idea of one man after us, much less five. For now, tell me this; will we be safe on Triumph?"

"You should be," Esther said. "As safe as anywhere else, that is." Mal would have to have content himself with that answer until he could question the girl more later.

"So? Can I stay?" Esther asked. "You said I had till Triumph, but I figure you've made up your mind by now."

"You're the supposed fortune teller. You tell me," Mal replied. He still wasn't sure if he bought into her claims, but they were easy enough to test later and what he'd seen of River had left him open to the possibility.

"I'm not so good at predicting what just one person will do – groups of people are easier to figure out, whole planets simpler still. But still…from what I know of you, I think you'll let me stay," Esther ventured, her voice hopeful, but tired.

"Well, we'll find out on Triumph if you predicted right," Mal said evasively. "Meeting's over," he said, turning to address the crew. "Leave the girl be for a while." Pillows or no, the girl was about to topple over from what effort it had required to tell her story. He knew when someone had been pushed to their limit, and the girl had reached hers.

"Wait," Simon said, his brain having digested Esther's story. "You said they don't like doing anything they can't undo. Does that mean River's damage can be undone?" he asked, breath held in hope.

"I don't know about all the way," Esther said, her voice getting quiet and weak once more, her energy spent. "At least somewhat. But is that what River wants?" she asked, as Simon leaned in to hear her soft voice.

"Of course she does," Simon said, the thought never having occurred to him. "Right, River?" he asked, turning to get her opinion. "River?" Simon called. The shadow where River had once concealed herself was empty, the girl gone as quietly as she came.

"We'll get you back to your room and you can rest for the night," Mal told the girl, his voice still firm but gentler, softened by the story he'd just heard. "We can talk more in the morning."

"Most of us are turning in for the night anyways," Kaylee said with a smile.

"Jayne will help you back to your room," Mal said, in a tone that brokered no room for disagreement.

"Aw, man…" Jayne grumbled. But Mal noted that his hands were surprisingly gentle as he lifted the girl. He cradled her in his arms, her head resting on his shoulder, limp alabaster arms a sharp contrast against Jayne's strong, tanned ones.

"My thanks," Esther said softly. Her voice was still composed, as though she weren't being carried bridal-style by a mercenary, but her face betrayed her exhaustion. The girl's eyelids were drooping and she looked like she might drop off asleep at any moment, despite her best efforts to the contrary.

Jayne must have noticed the odd look Mal was giving to him, because he said, gruffly, "I had a mess of little brothers and sisters at home."

"That must have been a sight to see," said Mal, imagining Jayne caring for his siblings. Watching Jayne with the girl, it was surprisingly easy to envision. Now there was a disturbing thought.

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><p><strong>AN:** Okay, I know I promised Saturday updates, but, well...I didn't realize yesterday was Saturday. I was working all day, so it felt like just another weekday. So sorry!

I hope you liked the chapter. My guess is you will have because we FINALLY got some background on Esther (not to mention learned her name!). More information will be forthcoming in the next chapter. I'm really excited about where this fic is going, you guys! PLEASE review!


	5. Simon's Hope

Disclaimer still applies.

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><p>When Simon awoke the next morning, it was to a sense of disorientation as he rolled over and almost found himself on the floor. Belatedly Simon remembered that his bunk had been given to the girl, Esther, and he had summarily been relegated to sleeping on the couch. He didn't mind - the girl certainly needed the bed more than he did - but the crick in his neck sure made him wish Serenity had just one more bunk.<p>

Rising, Simon straightened out his rumpled clothing from the day before (since he'd been sleeping out in the open, he hadn't thought his night clothes appropriate) and softly padded over to check on River. Through the crack in the door, he could see she was still asleep.

Watching River sleep was always bittersweet for Simon. On the one hand, she looked so peaceful when she slept, and Simon didn't have to try hard to imagine that when she woke up she'd be the sister who'd been taken from him that fateful day she left for the Academy. Simon had this daydream frequently, where the two of them would go off, and Simon could go back to his job as a doctor and River would go do whatever it is that prodigies do, and mother and father would be waiting to welcome him – them, he meant them – with open arms. And then River stirred and Simon was reminded that none of that was possible now.

He didn't regret saving her, could never regret that despite everything he'd given up in doing so. But sometimes Simon couldn't help but wish River hadn't been such a prodigy, or that she had at least not pushed so hard to go to The Academy. And then he'd have a rush of shame at the thought and force it down until it reared its head again. (_Why, oh why, did she have to go to the Academy?_)

Shaking his head, in an attempt to clear his head of the regrets that haunted him, Simon softly left River's bunk behind and went to make his way back to the couch to clean up his makeshift bed when he found his feet leading him to look in on Esther instead. Much to his surprise, the door was unguarded and unlocked.

Simon debated whether or not he should open the door, but finally justified it to himself, reasoning that the girl had obvious medical problems and as a doctor, it was his responsibility to visit her regularly and assess her health. Inwardly, though, he knew the real reason he was there. To him, Esther represented the possibility for answers where he'd never hoped for them, the chance to fix River (she'd said it could be done, hadn't she?), the opportunity to understand and move past what happened. And that was a tantalizing opportunity, which is why Simon was drawn to Esther's room like a moth to a light.

Soundlessly, thanks to many weeks of practice, he slid the door open – and was surprised to see cool brown (awake!) eyes meet his own. Simon didn't know whether to feel embarrassed to have been caught checking on her, or hopeful because since she was awake perhaps she'd answer some questions. Unable to decide, he settled for breaking the silence instead.

"Just up early, or couldn't sleep?" he asked quietly, so as not to wake River.

"I'm an early riser," Esther said softly. "You?"

"Same," Simon lied. Well, it was half true, anyways, and no need to make her feel guilty for taking his bed.

The two fell into an awkward silence once more. This time the girl was the one to break it.

"I'm sure you have questions," Esther ventured, correctly predicting – was that a prediction or just common sense? Simon wondered – what was on his mind.

"Oh, you don't even know how many questions I have," Simon breathed, taking that as his cue to enter (his? her? the?) room. "天啊, where do I start?"

"I can't help you there," Esther said, smiling slightly.

Simon was intensely grateful, now, that he'd come to Esther's room. So many questions – were they safe from the Alliance here, did she know River, how could he help River – but none of those were the words that came out. "What can you tell me about River?" Simon asked, settling for the most open ended of his questions, his voice tight with hope.

"There I really can't help you much," she replied, kindness filling her voice in an attempt to soften the rejection. "A lot of this is River's story to tell, not mine."

"Oh," Simon said, flustered. "You're right, I wouldn't want to intrude…"

"Besides, I don't know much," Esther said. "I don't know what her experience was like, but me, I was kept segregated from everyone else. I was meant only to interact with Alliance personnel and she…well, again, that's for her to tell you. What I can tell you," she said, seeking to ease the rejection with more information, "is that she cannot predict the future. But you probably already know that…"

"What did they do her?" Simon asked. "Can you tell me that? Do you even know that? You said it could be undone – how?" he asked, questions falling out of him rapid fire now.

"They…well, let's just say I wasn't the only one they did surgery on," Esther said, trying to break the news as lightly as possible, but failing.

"What did they do?" Simon asked tightly, dreading the answer.

"They operated on her brain," Esther said quickly, as though seeking to ease the pain of hearing the news by getting it over with as fast as possible. But learning this information was not like ripping off a plaster; if anything, Simon felt more shocked by the rapidity of the knowledge hitting him. He would deny her words, he wanted so badly for them to be untrue, but with that knowledge was so consistent with River's behavior. His dreams of seeing River whole again seemed to wash away in one fell swoop, as though they were never there, his hope gone with them.

"I don't know what they did, exactly, but I know they did many surgeries on her," Esther said, her voice emerging to fill the silence that engulfed the room.

"哎呀!" Simon muttered, horrified. "Why would they do such a thing – what purpose would that serve?!"

"They're the Alliance. They've done much worse for much less," Esther said flatly. "I would know," she added almost silently at the end.

"这些王八蛋，他们都该死！"Simon cried, uncharacteristically angry. "天啊, that explains so much!"

Esther remained silent for a beat, listening to Simon's ragged breaths as he brought himself back under control. "Wait – you said it could be undone. How?" Simon asked, his voice suddenly hopeful.

"I said, the Alliance doesn't like to do anything they can't undo. And from my stored knowledge, I know they have experimental materials that could theoretically allow them to repair brain damage. But again, I ask – would she want that?"

"Yes, of course!" Simon said emphatically. "Why do you keep asking that?" There was a possibility of curing River, something he wanted more than anything in the world – and River would, too, of course – that could change their lives for the better. He didn't understand why Esther kept asking him whether or not River would want it – couldn't she see how miserable River was?

"All I'm saying is, this should be her decision. Don't get too excited either way, though," she cautioned, warningly. "The only such machine I have record of is located in the Academy, and as I said, even that is experimental."

"Oh," Simon said heavily, feeling the hope drain out of him at this news. Not only was the machine at the Academy, which he doubted he could infiltrate a second time (or, rather, he knew he could get in, but he rather doubted he could get out), but it might not even work? That was beginning to sound like a fool's errand, just a tantalizing dream. How cruel, to have hope, then have it destroyed, then be given hope again and then have it ripped away so quickly.

"I'm sorry," Esther said gently.

"Don't be," Simon replied, waving off her concerns as he suppressed his own emotions. "Without you, I never would have known any of this. It's just…hard." To think that he could cure River and then to have those hopes dashed upon the rocks? Hard didn't even come close to describing how difficult that feeling was.

"Regardless, my sympathies. I wish there was some way I could help," Esther said comfortingly.

"Can you turn back time?" Simon said harshly, the emotion taunt in his voice. Before Esther could respond, he sighed, letting the anger flow out of him and said, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so harsh. I'm just…she was only a kid."

Esther remained silent, but understanding and compassion radiated from her nonetheless. Belatedly Simon realized that she had been even younger when she had been taken. How had she coped? Did she have a brother like him out there somewhere hunting for her?

"Is there at least some way to help River?" Simon asked more calmly. If he could not cure her, he would make it his mission to help at least treat her. The idea of his 妹妹 remaining the way she was for her lifetime was not acceptable.

"You'd need to have more specifics on what was done to her," Esther said. "The only reason I know that she was operated on in the first place is because they thought the information pertinent to finding her. But I don't know exactly what was done to her."

More specifics? If that was what was needed, that was what Simon would find. He would go to the ends of the universe to help River, and Esther had just pointed the way. With a new goal, Simon felt a new sense of purpose, hope reclaimed once more. It was like a blind man being given back his vision and Simon felt like he could see with clarity once more – including the girl on the bed in front of him.

"Oh, 天啊, I'm so sorry, I didn't think," Simon said, horrified at his lack of manners. He had been so intent on getting answers for River that it was as though he was just seeing for the first time the contents of the room he'd been in for the last ten minutes. Now that his questions were answered, he was actually able to register his environment and realized the girl in front of him had been lying prone on the bed the whole time, craning her neck in an effort to look up at him.

"I'm used to it," Esther said, with a self-deprecating smile, obviously having realized he was referring o her position. "It would be nice, though, to get in my chair and go wash up? There's a board to rest my head on and straps for my legs in my things – would you mind attaching them to the chair for me?" she asked questioningly.

"Of course!" Simon said, flustered that he hadn't thought to bring it to her in the first place. While the hospital had, of course, had patients in wheelchairs, he didn't have much experience with those that were not anesthetized. Simon rushed outside to get Esther's wheelchair. Wheeling it back into the room, he opened up the satchel attached to the back and found only a wooden board and long strips of cloth inside.

"Is this what you were referring to?" Simon asked, raising the items to show for her approval.

"Yes," Esther said, looking rather relieved to see her chair. "Just slide the board into the back of the chair and then help me onto it, if you don't mind. The straps can wait until I'm seated."

Looking again at the chair, Simon noticed a pocket sloppily hand stitched onto the back. Simon inserted the thinner end of the board in the pocket experimentally, and was happy to find the stitching held. About a foot of the wood now stuck out jauntily above the rest of the chair. Hesitantly, Simon slid his arms under Esther, one behind her neck, and the other under her knees, and then cautiously – as though he was afraid to break her, which Simon wasn't entirely certain he didn't fear – raising her off the bed and gently depositing her in the chair, her head resting against the board.

"Okay, now the straps," Esther said. Simon bent down and lifted the hem of her long skirt slightly, then nervously looped the cloth around her thin legs. "Don't worry, you won't hurt me," Esther added reassuringly, having noticed how gingerly Simon was tying the knots.

Simon finished with the straps and then remained crouched on the floor in front of her, his mind lost in thought and his physician training taking over. Now that he was focusing on her body as opposed to her blood readings, Simon took note that Esther's legs had looked like mere bones. Only the slightest evidence that muscle had once cloaked them was present, and even that was debatable. Based on the girl's story, which indicated loss of functional weight-bearing and mobility, it was likely that her body also bore deterioration in weight-bearing skeletal sites. She may not have had any spinal trauma, but whether she would ever walk again was questionable, to say the least.

Mind caught up in the academic matter at hand, Simon didn't realize Esther had said anything until he looked up and noticed her eyes locked squarely on his own.

"So sorry!" Simon exclaimed, flustered. "My apologies, I was…lost in thought."

"Apology accepted – I'm a very thought provoking person," Esther said good naturedly, with a small grin. After how serious she'd seemed yesterday, Simon was surprised to see she still had a sense of humor. "So, where are these wash rooms I've heard so much about?"

"In here," Simon said, gesturing to the small stall close by. About to move to push her inside, he paused, flummoxed. What was the etiquette here? His training did not extend to the appropriate protocol to follow when interacting with someone in a wheelchair. Should he attempt to predict her needs before she asked? Or should he wait until she specifically requested something? Moreover, Simon realized with growing discomfort, he was pushing her to the bathroom, which he knew she wouldn't be able to navigate herself. Would she expect him to assist her, even in there? He blushed, embarrassed by the very thought. Perhaps he could suggest that Kaylee help instead?

"If you wouldn't mind just pushing me in, I can take it from there," Esther said with a smile. "Zero grav equipment and all." If Simon hadn't known her abilities were limited to predicting large scale events, he would have sworn she'd read his mind, her words so well addressed his concerns.

Then again, with her abilities…maybe she did? Could she predict a person's thoughts? Frantically, Simon scanned his thoughts for anything untoward and was relieved to find nothing of the sort.

"…Esther?" he ventured hesitantly, trying to simultaneously sound nonchalant and keep a good reign on his thoughts. "Just how good are your predictions, exactly?"

"It depends on the situation and the number and accuracy of data points I have to work with, among other things. My range is anywhere from 59.7% accurate to 96.4% accurate," she replied automatically, as though reciting a long-memorized statistic.

"Oh, wow," Simon said, taken aback by her unexpected response. "I thought…when you said you predicted the future, I thought you predicted it perfectly."

"No, my brain is more like…like a computer," Esther said, evidently realizing that Simon, having come from the Core – did she know that about him? – would understand the reference. "I take data and I calculate what the most likely outcomes are given that data. It's not perfect, but it does help predict what the future holds with a degree of certainty. What makes me better than a computer, and the reason the Alliance wanted me so much, is that computers can't feel, can't understand human wants, emotions, and irrationalities. I can. That made me a far more accurate…_tool_," she said, pausing on the unwanted word, "to the Alliance. Why did you ask?"

"No, I meant, how specific of a situation can you predict?" he asked, clarifying. "For instance…could you predict what someone's thinking?" Simon asked cautiously.

"Well, yes," Esther said, frowning as though wondering why he would even think to ask that question. "But so can you. The difference between the two of us is how likely we are to be accurate, and even that depends. For instance, if you were to ask me what would happen if you – hit the captain, say – " Here Simon flinched at the insanity of even thinking about that, his mind calling up instead memories of the captain hitting him when Simon first came aboard.

" – you're far more likely to have an accurate answer to that than I am," Esther continued. "Because you know the captain's personality better than I do. You've seen him interact in more situations than I have and you have more data. And that's where my strength lies. Sure, I have a natural talent for predicting situations, but without the data I have stored, I'd only be an extraordinary strategist, like I was back when I was winning chess games. My prediction abilities would be the same, but I wouldn't be able to handle nearly so much data. But with the rod and the data I have stored now, the 'verse is my chess board." Esther concluded, eyes growing dark.

Simon practically shivered. On the one hand, there were so many amazing possibilities. With her abilities, Esther could help him and River get off the ship, find a safe place to hide and settle down. (_Does such a place even exist? _his mind suggested treacherously. _If there were other options, Esther wouldn't be here._) On the other hand, Esther had so much potential as to be dangerous. The captain had been right to think her a threat – the girl could be playing them all into an Alliance trap right now, predicting all the right moves and ways to outsmart them. Yes, her abilities could be tested to see if she was telling the truth about them, but all they had to trust her on her stated goals (_had she even stated any?_), that she was on their side and not the Alliance's, was her word. And as of that moment, Simon was feeling pretty uncomfortable with that situation.

"Sorry if I scared you," Esther said, correctly reading his face (_or predicting his reaction?_). "If it makes you feel any better, I'm not terribly good when it comes to predicting small-scale events, like the decision a single person is going to come to or what a single person's thinking –" here Simon breathed a sigh of relief, "– particularly if I don't have any context. That was the 59.7% accurate side I mentioned. But if you want me to predict what's going to happen on a large scale, like, for example, which side was going to win the war for unification?" she asked rhetorically. "That's when we get into numbers as high as 96.4% accuracy."

Yes, Simon thought, the girl was definitely a threat.

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><p>So is Esther a mole? I'm not going to tell you - you're just going to have to wait and find out! :D This is not going to be an easy to predict story, either, so you can guess, but who knows if you'll be right... :P<p>

This chapter we got to see more into Simon's point of view. What did you guys think? There's some definite foreshadowing here which was fun to write. :D

The main characters in this story seem to be changing significantly from what I'd predicted. Simon, Mal, OC, and perhaps Jayne and River later on seem to be emerging as the main characters in the plot/POVs. There may be a Jayne subplot, but I'm not fully decided on that yet. So I'm going to change the main characters listed for the story - it's going to be strange because I'm sure people will think I'm pairing Simon and Mal romantically, lol. (Which is fine, btw, but this fic is going to stay pretty canon, so far as I can manage it - barring, of course, the inclusion of Esther which is throws the plot all to AU world.) Know now, this is not going to be a particularly romantic story. There will be romance, of course, but the focus is going to be on the plot, which is going to start small and be relatively similar to the TV show and then spiral to extend to the whole star system...kind of like the movie did, only, of course, with a dramatically altered plot.

I'm sure you've noticed, we have yet to delve into Esther's own POV. That's because I want a lot of the mystery about her to remain. But never fear, you will get to see into her POV...eventually. :)

Next chapter may be a bit later, unfortunately. It will still update on a Saturday, but I don't know when and it probably won't be this coming Saturday. My classes are really picking up and I'm falling behind on classwork, so I really can't justify writing when my grades are at stake. Plus, as I predicted, the chapters are growing longer which means they take longer to write. But never fear! I LOVE this story and should keep updating pretty regularly. :)

[Edited 4/6/14 to add: Yeah, guys, I'm definitely not updating weekly anymore. I think I'll be posting new chapters once a month, still on a Saturday to make it easier to check for. The combined facts that the chapters are getting longer and my time is getting shorter kind of necessitates this longer period between updates. I'm aiming to give you guys high quality as opposed to high quantity - there are plenty of fics that are the latter here on FF, but not so many of the former - but that takes time. My apologies for the delay, though. I assure you, I have been writing and am continuing with this story. Next chapter is moving in a different direction than I thought, so instead of moving straight into the Estherified version of one of the episodes (this fic definitely goes along with the previously established episodes, just differently because of the addition of Esther and in a different order, skipping several, to line up with how I think events would occur given her presence) we'll be doing some more background on the ship and setting things up for the movement into our episode. Anyone want to guess which episode it is? Remember, I'm not going in order.

Also, I actively go back and edit my previously posted chapters as well, generally for small typos and lines I think could be written better, but sometimes for larger things as well, like making the crew's reaction to Esther's claim she could read minds more realistic or when I didn't want Esther to have revealed quite as much about River. So know that this is a living document and while nothing huge is subject to change, the details definitely are. The positive of this is that I'm one of those authors that if you see something that could be better in the fic, whether it be a typo or just something awkwardly written, and tell me about it, so long as I agree with you I really will change it. I guess what I'm saying is, your words matter.]

Please review, people. It's really awkward right now, actually, my terribly written fanfiction from back when I was really young (I think it was my first story ever and I had a juvenile sense of humor so the main plot point was that Hermione and Draco got turned into frogs and needed true love's kiss to save them. *cringes*) actually has more reviews than this one, despite fewer words, the same number of chapters (now that I've published this chapter, it actually has less), and of course way lower quality. I would hope this fic at least surpasses that one (for which I would need 22 reviews, in case you were wondering).

Thanks for reading! And like I said, please leave a review! :)


	6. Revelations

Disclaimer: All this is the property of the wonderful Joss Whedon, not me!

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><p>Kaylee was cheerful. Simon had smiled at her at lunch, she'd had a lovely chat with Inara, and, most importantly, there was someone new on the boat! Kaylee loved meeting new folk. They all had such interesting lives and stories to tell. Esther more than most...although not in a good way.<p>

Kaylee felt her smile dim at the thought. What a sweet girl, trying to protect the other children. To know those 大魔头 had gone and done such terrible things to her; well, Kaylee had never hated anyone before, so she couldn't tell for sure, but she was pretty certain that was what she was feeling now.

But anger wouldn't help the girl. A good meal and a friend, though, now those just might. Which was why Kaylee was walking over to the couch the girl was lying on now, carrying a plate piled high with protein. Esther'd slept all the way through lunch, poor thing was so tired. She had been sleeping so peacefully that Kaylee hadn't had it in her to wake the girl. But now it was three hours after midday meal, and Simon said she hadn't eaten breakfast either, so Kaylee's concern for the girl's health was overriding her reservations about waking her.

Kaylee sat the plate down on the table and smiled, seeing Esther was still lying down fast asleep. The girl hadn't so much as budged an inch from where Kaylee'd last seen her...although, come to think of it, she probably couldn't move much even if she tried.

"Esther," Kaylee said in a cheery, sing-song voice. "Esther, time to wake up! I brought you some protein!"

The girl didn't rouse; poor thing must not have slept well last night. Undeterred, Kaylee took Esther's shoulder gently in her hand.

"Esther," she said louder, shaking the girl's shoulder lightly. "起来吧!" Still no response.

"Esther?" Kaylee said, shaking her in earnest now. "Esther!" she cried, the distress evident in her voice. Oh God, she wasn't moving! As a last ditch effort, Kaylee hauled the girl upright. Nothing.

"Kaylee?" a voice called, worriedly. "Oh, God!" another voice said. Suddenly there was the sound of running feet and then business-like hands were prying Kaylee off of Esther. Distantly, Kaylee felt herself turn and look at the people who had come to her aid. It was Simon and the captain.

"What happened, Kaylee?" the captain asked, his voice stern, but his eyes worried.

"She won't wake!" Kaylee heard herself say, her voice sounding far away and tinny. "I was just comin' to give her some lunch, but she won't wake up!"

"Doc?" he asked.

Simon shook his head, hands rummaging through his med kit - _Where had he gotten that from?_ Kaylee wondered - and coming up with a vial of something or another and a syringe.

"Pulse and breathing are within normal range, albeit on the slower side," Simon said. Kaylee felt herself sag in relief. At least Esther was alive. "I don't know what's wrong with her and I hesitate to give her any medicine until I know what's causing this; otherwise, I risk making it worse."

"Is there nothing you can do?" Kaylee asked shakily. Sure, she was glad Esther was alive, but to see her there lying all limp like that - well, more limp than normal - was terrifying.

"Allow me," Mal said. And then, before Kaylee even realized what he was doing, Mal leaned forward, grabbed Esther's ear, and _twisted it_ near halfway around. Kaylee looked on in horror - girl was in bad shape enough, didn't need folk to go messin' with her while she was out - when suddenly Esther's eyes flew open and she gasped.

"Oh, thank God she's okay!" Kaylee cried out in relief. "How'd you know to do that, Captain?"

"Old soldier's trick," Mal said, by way of explanation, his concerned expression quickly hardening as he faced the girl.

"Oh, 他妈的," Esther breathed, looking around in shock and horror at the faces wreathing her. "真不好意思！"

"Care to explain what just happened?" Mal asked, his eyes narrowing.

"Captain," Kaylee chided gently. "She just woke up; give her some time to breathe."

"I'm fine, and you deserve an explanation. I am so very sorry for frightening you all!" Esther said apologetically. "Remember how I said I could read the future?" Esther asked as Simon helped her sit up. "Well, that's what it looks like when I do. Kind of."

"You could have warned us!" Kaylee said indignantly. She felt bad for getting upset with Esther, but she'd just been so scared when she thought her dead.

"I didn't intend to be out so long!" Esther cried. "Really, I didn't. I was just trying to figure out how...how to best keep away from the Feds," she said, stumbling a bit at the end.

Kaylee noticed that the Captain's expression was skeptical and Simon's...Simon's was more thoughtful than anything, even a bit worried. And was that suspicion on his face? Kaylee didn't know why they were reacting that way; that seemed as good an excuse as any.

"I think it's high time that we test that claim," the Captain said. "See if you really are as all fired good at figurin' out the future as you say you are. Jayne," he said, surprising Kaylee who hadn't realized that nearly the whole crew had come to see what all the commotion was about.

"Yeah?" the man in question asked.

"Go get me that chess board."

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><p>Three hours later Mal'd thrown everything he could think of at the girl. She'd bested every single one of them in chess - Jayne, funnily enough, was the one who'd lasted the longest against her and that was only because he had to be taught how the pieces moved - so he'd decided it was time to move on.<p>

When Mal couldn't think of any other tests, Esther had suggested some herself, apparently eager to prove her abilities. She had them bounce a ball on the wall and told them she'd predict where it would land the instant it left their hands. And damned if she didn't get it spot on every time, even when River of all people took the ball and - with a smile at Esther - threw it against the wall in such a way that it hit the upstairs walkway, bounced off some shipping crates, hit yet another wall, and then rolled along the floor until it rested against Esther's wheel-chair, much to Mal's surprise - but not, he noted, to Esther's.

River had walked away before the ball had landed, so Mal couldn't read her face, but if he hadn't known better he would have sworn she knew it was going to land there. The idea that River may have some of the same abilities as Esther claimed was starting to bear some looking into.

Shaking off that unsettling feeling, Mal had ordered them to move on to a new test he'd thought of during the previous one. All the crew members gathered around Esther's chair and peppered her with questions about the history of the 'verse. If what the girl said about that data rod was true, she should know the answers to all of them. By informal agreement, each crew member mostly asked questions about their home planet's histories. Jayne dropped out early on ("Aw, hell, I never did see the point in schoolin'."), followed by Kaylee, then Wash.

Simon and Inara continued on, with Simon taking up the bulk of the questioning (it was as though the boy had memorized that encyclopedia he read so much) and Inara supplementing. Mal had learned more about how complex Companioning was in ten minutes than he had in a lifetime, as after Inara ran out of questions about Sihnon she turned to quizzing Esther on companion history, ending by saying she'd asked all the questions she could ask without running afoul of guild law. Zoe and Mal followed shortly after, having asked all they could about the war.

Mal was surprised by the depth of Esther's knowledge, everything from supply line routes to the Independent commander's apparently not-so-secret affair with a colonel, which Mal himself had only found out by accident. Small wonder they'd lost, if the Alliance knew that much about them. Way the girl talked, you'd think she'd fought in the war, not just learned about it.

Suddenly ice gripped Mal's chest. Esther looked about eighteen now, and the war started eleven years ago. That meant the girl woulda been about seven when it started, twelve by the time it finished. With blood chilling certainty, Mal realized that Esther had fought in the war. Not with weapons, no, it was much worse than that. With her mind.

About six months into the war, everything had changed. The Independents had started out with overwhelming public support, massive numbers, enormous arms depots, surprisingly vast stores of money, and the all-important home field advantage. Most folk had thought they couldn't lose and Mal had counted himself among their number. Sure enough, his fellow browncoats had won victory after victory initially, crushing any Alliance incursions.

They'd been so successful that there'd actually been bickering among the leaders about whether or not they should go on the offensive. The thought was to take the fight to the Core to crush the Alliance once and for all. Mal'd never been in favor of that plan - all he wanted was to protect his home, not destroy the homes of others - but his thoughts on the matter had been rendered moot when the tide of the war changed overnight. From that point on, far from going on the offensive, he and the others had been reduced to struggling merely to slow down the rate of their losses.

Sure they'd had victories after that point - such as the destruction of the I.A.V. Alexander - which in retrospect were what stretched the war out so long, but they'd been few and far between. All of a sudden it was like the Alliance knew the Independents' every action before they themselves did. Talk among the troops was that the Alliance had a secret spy network among the Independents' number and had only activated them when it seemed they were about to lose the war. But now he knew the truth.

Mal had suffered so many losses. The loss of the war. The loss of his commanders. The loss of the troops who'd put their faith in him. The loss of his mother and all those back home he held dear. Hell, his whole planet had been lost.

And all those losses were too much to bear, which was why Mal'd purchased his boat in the first place, as a way to get away from the reminders of them. And yet somehow the cause of every one of those losses had made its way onto the instrument he'd used to escape them. And she was sitting right there in front of him.

_If not for her, they would be alive today._

In that moment, Mal felt the overwhelming urge to act. He should at least do something, say something, to acknowledge this terrible wrong. Scream at her, hit her, shoot her, do anything because -

_she caused this._

And yet, did she? To the Alliance, the girl was just another one of their puppets, a tool to be used. If her story was true, and Mal was inclined to think it was, she'd been essentially sold into slavery at the age most children were starting primary school. The Alliance had used her as a tool and extracted the winning strategy for the war from her; the girl had complied under duress, no more, no less.

_She could have fought against them._

Mal could begin his fury beginning to cool in earnest now as the ludicrousness of his reasoning became apparent. Ask a seven year old to stand up to Alliance torture where even the most hardened veteran might crack? Even through all his grief, Mal knew it would be the height of foolishness to expect that from her.

His grief. 天啊, if he was grieving, what kind of toll had that taken on her? Before she'd even hit her teenage years, the girl had already been the cause of the deaths of millions, including what amounted to almost her entire home world. All against her will. That had to make a body feel awfully impotent, having all that power but forced to use it towards terrible ends. And the guilt! Mal knew how gut-wrenchingly painful it felt to carry the deaths of the men he'd lost on his conscience, but this girl, she had to bear the weight of the deaths of more folk than he'd meet in a lifetime.

With a jolt, Mal realized Esther had left this crucial time period out of her story altogether. She'd told them all the beginning and the end, but she'd skipped the middle period, her time as the Alliance's tool, in its entirety. Was she also running from her loss?

Or did she leave it out because she was a willing tool of the Alliance? She may have been taken unwillingly - that's assuming Mal believed her story - but a lot could change in over twelve years' time. And the combination of torture and brainwashing, not to mention the ability to physically tinker with the girl's mind? That was a potent combination.

Though he wanted to believe Esther's story, Mal knew the odds of it being true had just plummeted. And yet - what would the Alliance have to gain by placing their most valuable tool on his boat? Such an oversized weapon to catch small fish like him and his crew. Because that's what the Alliance considered all of them - small fish. All, that is, but River.

Mal knew he'd seen flashes of reading in her, too. Girl knew things she shouldn't, things she couldn't, correctly predicted things she had no way of knowing. His mind called up River in the hold earlier, throwing the ball, not even looking, knowing it would land at Esther's feet. And in that moment, Mal knew River could read the future, too.

Sure, Esther had said River's abilities were different from her own, but if she was an Alliance operative, that was all the more reason to doubt the truth of her words.

The more Mal thought about it, the more clear a potential Alliance motive became. Esther herself had said the Alliance was searching for River, using Esther as a tool to do so. Well, it had to be pretty damned hard to capture a girl who could read the future, even one as crack brained as River. Maybe that was the reason Esther was here - as a ploy to recapture River, to lure her into a scenario where the Alliance could take her back. It would take a reader to catch a reader, and that fact almost justified the Alliance motivation to send someone like Esther out into the field. Almost.

But that was all conjecture and there was still a chance Esther might be innocent. Until he knew for sure either way, he could not act. And after all that thinking, Mal came to one inevitable conclusion; he didn't know what to think.

So instead of acting on his feelings, Mal decided to bide his time and wait. The girl herself was physically harmless, doc had assured him, hardly able to twitch a finger. So long as Mal didn't let her influence where the ship went (ie potentially straight into an Alliance trap), and kept her under guard at all times, she could not hurt them. In the meanwhile, Mal plastered a fake smile on his face. The girl could not be permitted to know anything was amiss, not yet. Not until Mal had formed his own plan to deal with her.

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><p><span><strong>AN:** So, the plot's heating up! This chapter went into an unexpected direction, but let me tell you, I loved writing it! I get to delve more into Esther's psyche every day (and I haven't even written in her POV yet!), and WOW is that an interesting place to be!

Okay, so I realize the pace of updates has slowed. And I'm thinking that's going to be a permanent change - at this point I'm aiming for monthly updates on pretty much whatever day of the week I get around to it. I've got classes and other commitments to deal with and as I said, they come first.

However, to try to speed things up a bit for you all, instead of going through three rounds of edits before I post, I'm going to try posting the mostly unedited version here and make changes to it as I post. That means you'll be seeing a fair number of tiny changes for the next...well, long while, actually, but I should have most of them done in a few weeks.

Also, for those of you who appreciated this chapter, know that you have Mendip123 to thank for it! Thanks to their lovely reviews and messages, I wrote about 75% of this chapter in a day. Not that I'm the sort of author who would hold a story hostage for reviews, of course. It's just that a review is a reminder that there are interested readers and I should really get a move on on writing! So I do!

Those of you who are observent may note that I changed the age Esther was when she was first taken. Don't worry, I changed the other chapter, too, for continuity. RionaEire pointed out that Esther was so young when first taken that the Alliance mistreatment might have an even stronger negative effect on her than on River. I remedied that as much as I felt comfortable doing, made her a couple of years older when she was taken. I don't want to go further than that because I really like the idea of her having affected the outcome of the Unification War, for which she can't be too old, but it's a very interesting concept...

Also, there are effects on Esther from the captivity which explain what she's like now. However, you'll have to wait and find out! Until next time!


	7. You Know What You Need to Do

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly. There are some segments of dialogue lifted directly from one of the episodes in this chapter, but I don't own those either.

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><p>"You sure she's really sleepin' this time?" Jayne asked, surly. The commotion from earlier had interrupted his traditional after-lunch nap - or whatever else it was he did in his bunk - and presumably he was still grouchy about that. It reminded Wash of his nephew, a mere toddler when he last saw him, and examining the comparison closer Wash found an amusingly high number of similarities between the two.<p>

"A course she is," Kaylee said. "She promised that she was really asleep this time."

"But if you're not convinced, you could always go poke her and check," Wash heard himself say mockingly. Normally he'd feel a bit bad about teasing a person as mercilessly as he did Jayne, but, well, it was Jayne.

"You got a problem, little man?" Jayne snarled in response. See, this is why Wash enjoyed messing with him so much - it always paid off in Jayne's reaction. However, seeing his lovely wife's look of warning, along with the gun Jayne was cleaning rather more vigorously than normal, led the small part of Wash's mind invested in self-preservation to limit his reply to a mere scoff.

"River!" Simon said as his sister walked into the room. Although really, to call it walking didn't to do it justice. Wash had noticed that River didn't simply walk; she danced. Sometimes the dance was gleeful, other times sad. On this particular day it seemed to be an aimless, wandering sort of dance, as though her feet were leading the way and her body was simply pulled along behind them.

"Have you eaten?" Simon asked. River shook her head listlessly, sitting down and resting her head in her hands, her long hair pooling in front of her. Jayne impatiently brushed the stray strands off his guns, laid out on the table for cleaning, although River didn't seem to notice.

"Here, you can have some of mine," Simon said, placing his bowl on the table next to her. "I took a bite and found myself suddenly rather full," he continued, with a pointed glance at the day's cook, Jayne.

"Hey, it's food ain't it?" Jayne said, picking up on Simon's less than subtle criticism. "'Sides, you wanna do all the cookin'?" the man in question asked.

"I think I speak for everyone when I say that none of us want that to happen," Wash said, remembering the last meal Simon cooked with a shudder. "No offense, but you might wanna stick to doctoring."

Jayne smirked, apparently happy to see Wash's wits being used on someone else for a change.

"River, you haven't so much as touched your food," Simon said, turning away from the two men towards his sister once more. Wash thought it wise of him to change the topic, although he was disappointed the fun was over. "It's better than it sounds, I promise," Simon continued, pushing the bowl towards her. The girl only muttered in response.

"What was that?" Simon asked, cocking his head closer to her.

"In the room," River replied, distantly.

"Oh, did you want to eat back in your room?" Simon replied, trying to guess her meaning.

"Tied up, can't move, can't feel," River said, moaning.

"Oh, River," Simon said, hastening to sit next to her and hold her in his arms. "It's okay 妹妹, you're safe now."

"Want to know, can't know, can't let them find out," River said, almost chanting now. "Don't scream, don't scream, don't scream!" she cried, her voice growing louder and louder. She began to thrash in her brother's arms. "Can't let them win, can't let them know, don't let it show!" River said, almost shouting now. It was clear now to everyone that the girl was having one of her moments.

"River!" Simon cried impotently, straining to keep her upright now. Wash grabbed the doc's kit, still sitting along the wall where he'd lain it from the day's earlier adventure, and put it next to the man. "A little help?" Wash asked Jayne tightly. The man rolled his eyes, but stood up nonetheless and made to restrain the girl. But as soon as his hands touched River's -

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she screamed.

There was a flash of silver and all of a sudden Jayne had dropped her arms and stumbled back in shock.

"River!" Esther cried from across the room, apparently awakened by all the commotion.

"Son of a…" Jayne said, putting his hand to his now bleeding chest. At that very moment, River's eyes flashed into focus again and the knife she'd grabbed from the table clattered to the floor. Jayne backhanded her mightily and the girl would have fallen to the floor had Simon not still had a firm grip on her.

"River…" Simon said slowly, as though unable to take the situation in.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Kaylee asked, rushing to Jayne's side.

"That's deep," Zoe remarked, examining his wound.

"What the hell just happened?" Wash asked in shock. No one answered.

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><p>"The moon brain's got to go!" Jayne said angrily. "That high 'n mighty doc, too, and hell, may's well unload ourselves of the cripple while we're at it. She was nice to look at, but she's starting to get a bit creepifying, too. All of them are! Triumph's as goood a place as any to leave 'em. Might even pick ourselves up a reward for our troubles."<p>

"No one's getting left," Mal said firmly. "Not yet, at least," he muttered to himself, thinking about Esther. With her the thought was tempting.

"She belongs in a bughouse. You don't pitch her off this boat right now, I swear to you…" Jayne said, his anger leading his words into unmarked territories.

"What? What do you swear, Jayne?" Mal said sharply.

Jayne apparently thought better of his words, because he changed tactics. "They don't get gone, you better start locking up your room at night. Next time lil' sister gets in a murderin' mood, might be you she comes calling on. Maybe Kaylee. Or Inara. You let 'em stay 'n we're gonna find out."

Simon made to object, but Mal didn't even let him open his mouth. "Finish your work, doctor," he said, steely eyed, not even taking his gaze off of. Simon needed to be in the room to finish stitching up Jayne's cut, but Mal had no intention of letting him join the conversation. Mal's authority was being questioned, and he needed to put Jayne in his place without the doc interfering.

"Now you listen here," Mal said firmly, speaking directly to Jayne now. "This is my boat, and Simon and River are part of my crew. They ain't getting left. Best you get used to that."

Jayne stepped off the examining table, obviously still steaming, but knowing when to hold his tongue. As he stalked out the infirmary door, he grumbled to Simon, "You owe me a shirt."

Jayne taken care of, now Mal turned to Simon, who was moving to speak again.

"She's to stay confined in her room at all times, no exceptions. You want to take her to the kitchen, the infirmary, whatever - you ask me first. You understand?"

Simon, knowing the gravity of his situation, quietly said, "I do."

"When I took you and your sister in, the deal was you keep her in check. You can't hold up your end, we're gonna have to revisit that deal," Mal said warningly.

The last thing he wanted to do was kick Simon and River off the boat. But he had to keep the rest of his crew safe, and if that the only way to do so, well, he'd do it in a second. Because that was what being captain was all about - making the hard decisions for the benefit of the whole. Mal would not shirk that duty.

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><p>Simon climbed up the stairs from the infirmary with a lot to think about. He felt thoroughly put in his place by the conversation that had just occurred, reminded that his place on the ship constantly toed a razor thin line. After the captain had helped hide him and River when they'd been boarded by the Alliance, he had started to let his guard down at least a small amount, to imagine that at least for the moment they had found sanctuary. Turns out that moment might be a whole lot shorter than he'd thought.<p>

Despite the captain's orders, he knew he couldn't control River. 天啊, he couldn't even seem to keep her condition from deteriorating, as it surely was despite his best efforts. If only he could find a medication that would work for her, that would bring back at least some semblance of the River he had once known. But without knowing exactly what was done to her, Simon could only guess what would work, and thus far his guesses had been ineffectual. It was like trying to fly while blindfolded; the likelihood of success was abysmal, and the chance of disaster - like what had happened today - magnified a hundred fold.

It occurred to Simon that he'd been pacing back and forth through the dining area as he thought, and he looked up to see if anyone had noticed him. The room had cleared out quickly after the incident earlier, and apparently no one had cared to re-enter it just yet. The room was empty; empty, save for the girl still propped up with pillows on the couch. Esther. Suspicious of her as he was, as he met her deep, knowing gaze, he found himself wishing she would reveal some hidden information that would show him the way to fixing River.

"I can't help her," Esther said suddenly, her voice penetrating the silence as though with a knife. "But you can. You know what you need to do."

The girl's prediction skills were eerie, but damned if she wasn't right. He'd lacked the courage to suggest it before, thinking his place on the ship too unstable to risk, but now he saw if he didn't act now, it would be too late. Simon knew what to do, and he felt the confidence in having a clear path surge through his body as he turned and rushed right back down the stairs and into the infirmary once more, where Mal was still standing.

"I have a job for you."

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><p>AN: Yay! So not only do we have an idea where we're going, now, but I actually updated! Oh goodness, you guys, it has been so hard getting to the computer to write lately! I apologize for the shortness of the chapter, but, well, I figured it was better to at least give you guys something to read as opposed to waiting until I had a long chapter to post. I hope you agree. :)

So, yeah, as you've noticed, I'm not updating as frequently. As in, even less so than before. It's sad, but I think this is going to be the new normal - or potentially even longer gaps between chapters. I have work and school, and when I'm not doing one of those, I write to educate people about autism, of all things. (Yes, that heavily influences my interpretation of River.) I prioritize all of those things over this fic, for which I make no apologies. In the Fall, I'm actually going to be even busier, so that means even more time between updates. I'm sorry for making you guys wait, I know it's frustrating, but I'm so incredibly busy this is the only way I can make it work. Sorry!

However, reviews really do help inspire me to update. Knowing there are readers who care about the fic is seriously the only thing that keeps me coming back to this story. Because writing is fun, but without you guys, writing would be so far down my priority list that it would never get done. So if you like the fic, and want to help me out with updating, please leave a review. :)

Also, does anyone know what's going on in the newly released Serenity comics? I don't have enough money to buy them, but as I'm trying to keep this as in-universe as it's possible for an AU to be, and the comics are apparently visiting the Academy, I'd like to know so I can incorporate that knowledge into the fic.

Thanks for reading!


	8. The Judgment of Solomon

Disclaimer: I don't own Firefly/Serenity, I'm just playing in Joss's sandbox. And what a beautiful sandbox it is. :)

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><p>"So your idea is to have us go to an Alliance hospital on a Core planet, walk straight in through the front door, steal from the sick, and smuggle River, one of the verse's most wanted, in for a check up while you're at it," Wash said. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but does that sound like suicide to anyone else?" he asked, looking around the table.<p>

When Simon had called this meeting, none of them - save Mal, who he'd already told - had expected it to be with a proposal for a job. Something about River, maybe, or about doctoring, one of the areas that was his strength, yes. But stealing? No. The crew had seen no evidence of abilities in that regard, and their skepticism (which, though only Wash had voiced, was on the faces of all) reflected their disbelief.

"It does, sweetheart," Zoe said, clearly amused by the way her husband had phrased the matter, but also in agreement.

"Oh, come on now, Zoe," Mal said, wheedlingly. "You gotta admit, this is a great plan. Rob from the rich, sell to the poor, and stick it to the Alliance while we're at it? We'll be in disguise, and since it's a Core hospital, doc said they'll be restocked with medication within the hour. It's perfect."

"If it works," Zoe said, still skeptical.

"If it works," Mal agreed.

"How the hell are we going to even dock on Ariel in the first place?" Jayne asked sullenly. "You forget, Doc, no ships land planet-side without Alliance say so. Well, them and some other ships I've been on, but I ain't doin' that again without a whole lot more cashy," Jayne said.

"Well, there are forged permits," Simon said, looking briefly nonplussed, then recovering.

"You don't need to forge a permit," Inara said suddenly, much to Mal's surprise. "I'll be your legitimate business. It's Guild law that all Companions are required to undergo a physical examination once a year. The examination can take as long as two days. That should be enough to cover you; assuming that's sufficient time for what you have planned, that is," she said.

"That's more than enough," Simon said, relieved.

"Okay, let's say I'm intrigued," Mal said. "How's about you get to telling us the plan?" When the boy had come to him with a job offer, Mal had taken him seriously. For one thing, they were low on cash and he couldn't be picky about jobs at the moment. For another, though he'd never tell Simon as much, the boy was smart. Not street smart, growing up in the Core had made that impossible, but a natural planner, the sort of skill all heist plots needed. Odd as it was to imagine, had Simon been born to a different circumstances, Mal figured he probably would have been a criminal mastermind by now.

"We're going to -" Simon started to say, then cut himself off suddenly. "Actually, would you mind if I bring Esther over to join us? I'd like her input," he said.

"Have you asked the girl what she thinks of the plan?" Mal asked. He might not trust her as far as he could throw her, but her thoughts would yield insights, both into her loyalties and the job.

"She's the whole reason for the plan," Simon said. Zoe and Mal exchanged a look of dismay at this information as Simon left to go get the girl in question. The job sounded good. Helping River was a bonus. But the involvement of a girl that might be an Alliance mole in a plan that took them deep into Alliance territory? That was a risk, to say the least.

Mal weighed his options in his mind. On the one hand, as the captain he could call this whole endeavor to a screeching halt right then and there. On the other, though...they needed the money, and they needed to make sure River didn't go around stabbing his crew. And the plan was mostly Simon's idea, it sounded like, with just a bit of influence from Esther. With his crew watching each other's backs, as long as they kept their guard up they should be safe no matter what the girl had planned...if she'd even planned anything.

And, with any luck, he'd come out of the job knowing for sure where Esther stood. Metaphorically, that is. It disquieted Mal having someone on his ship that he didn't know whether to treat as a young girl in need of protection, or a threat waiting to reveal itself. With this job, he might be able to tease out which she was.

That settled it. Mal was committed to letting this job go through. Everyone deserved a chance to prove themselves, and Esther would get hers. But he'd be watching like a hawk, and if he got so much as a hint she was against them...well, there would be no more girl to worry about.

* * *

><p>Now that Esther had joined them, with Kaylee bringing some hospital schematics in at the girl's request (though Mal was still going to let them go through with the plan, it unsettled him seeing how she already knew what hospital they were going to rob before they even told her), the planning for the heist was beginning in full.<p>

"There will small battery of local Alliance Federals substationed here," Simon said, continuing his speech and gesturing to the schematics. "Now, every floor, every doorway is equipped with sensors, and at all points of entry - patient ident scans. However, once clear of those checkpoints, movement within the facility itself should be relatively unhindered. Now, the standard layout should put the medvault somewhere…"

As he'd expected, the boy had a good plan plotted out, but there was something Simon was forgetting.

"Now, let's go back to the ident scans," Mal said. "You and your sister are tagged fugitives. How do you figure we're going to get you in the building?"

"Through the front door," Simon replied, having obviously planned this out.

Mal scoffed. There was no way it was going to be that simple.

"Believe me, Captain, getting the two of us in is going to be easy," Simon continued. "The rest of you, that is going to be the real trick."

Esther chimed in, elaborating. "The only patients that get scanned are the ones that alive. But if Simon and River are dead…" she trailed off meaningfully.

"Yeah, but...then they'd be dead," Wash said. "Does anyone else see a slight problem with this plan?"

"Not me," Jayne said. "Hell, I'm just starting to like this plan."

Mal glared at Jayne. He was grateful the man wasn't smart enough to cover his feelings - made him easier to predict and ward off - but Mal knew he'd have to watch Jayne closely.

"We won't really be dead," Simon said, addressing Wash and ignoring Jayne altogether. "I have a drug that will induce a protocomatose state; River and I will take it before we leave the ship, and then you can administer the antidote once we're inside."

"Oh, that explains everything!" Wash said. Turning to the rest of the crew, he asked, "What does that mean?"

"It means they'll look dead, but then they'll wake up," Esther clarified.

"You shoulda said that before you got my hopes up," Jayne complained.

"We'll need to procure a few items off ship," Simon said, continuing with his description. "I've made a list. Now, given my status as a fugitive, someone else will have to -" He broke off suddenly as Kayle, Jayne, and Wash all immediately raised their hands, grinning. Obviously they all wanted to spend some time on a Core planet.

"We have some volunteers," Simon said, his smile carrying over to his voice. "Good. Now, before we ever make it to the front door we're going to have to breach the perimeter. Only official vehicles are allowed in, so, we'll need one." Mal raised an eyebrow at this news, interested to see how Simon would resolve this hurdle.

"Now, obviously we can't steal what we need. Any illegal activity in the planning stages could end this thing before it starts. St. Lucy's Hospital contracts with the local municipal dumpyard for all its large disposal. Big hospitals mean big waste, so we shouldn't have any trouble finding what we're looking for. We'll also have to look like we belong. All we have to do is slip a couple of bills into the right hands. That gets us uniforms, ID badges and keycards. A little creative forgery and we've got ourselves a working alias," Simon said. Mal was amused - hearing talk like that, you'd never think the boy was from the Core. Maybe there was hope for rehabilitating him after all.

"It's improbable that the badges will actually work to let you into rooms, though," Esther interrupted. "Test them when you get in the building; if they work, great, but if not, you'll need to steal someone else's. Preferably a doctor or someone high ranking, since their badge will grant you access to more areas."

Simon nodded his assent and continued. "Now, all of these items are easy to obtain. They'll get us up _to_ the door. Now, in order to get us in…" Here, Simon paused to look meaningfully at Mal, Zoe, and Jayne. Especially Jayne.

"What?!" the man in question barked suspiciously.

"You'll have to be able to convince the doctors there that you belong," Simon said slowly. Mal was already starting to see how that might be a problem with Jayne. "But," he added quickly, sensing he was losing his audience, "I can teach you some basic phrases to memorize. That should be enough to let you pass."

"What do you think?" Mal asked, addressing Esther alone. "You bein' the resident oracle and all. Is this a good idea?"

"I'm helping you, aren't I? I wouldn't if I thought it was a bad plan. But you know your crew better than I do, their strengths, their weaknesses, their loyalty," Esther said. Was it just Mal, or did she stress that last word? "Do you think you all can pull it off?"

"I wouldn't have agreed to it if I didn't," Mal replied, a little testily.

"Then we're good," she said simply. "Now all we need to do is set the plan into motion."

* * *

><p>"That's amazing," Simon said, entering the cargo bay and wheeling Esther in front of him. In the middle of the bay sat what to anyone else would appear to be a shiny new hospital ambulance, which only the crew would know that the day before it had been a broken down shuttle reclaimed from a junkyard. Kaylee and Wash had retrofitted it to the point that it would be unrecognizable to any who had seen it before.<p>

"You two did an incredible job," Simon said, congratulating them. Kaylee beamed with pride, and Wash looked rather pleased with himself.

"And the finishing touch…" Kaylee said happily as the ambulance door opened.

Mal, Zoe, and Jayne emerged from the former shuttle in their disguises, emergency med tech uniforms that Jayne had procured from who knows where.

"If I didn't know better, I'd say you were ready to save some lives," Simon told them. They really did look like the techs Simon had seen at the hospital. He himself was surprised at how well this phase of the plan had turned out.

"Now all you two have to do is get all corpsified and we're set!" Mal said, looking almost excited. Jayne, who had been looking gloomy all day, perked up at this reminder.

Simon was considerably less enthused than the other two about this aspect of the plan. Not only would he have to put himself completely at the mercy of Jayne, of all people, but the drug was known to induce nausea and vomiting upon administration of the antidote. Not something he was looking forward to. And now, as he bade farewell to the others, he had to go do something he was even more anxious about - convincing River to actually take the drug. He could only pray that she, too, realized the importance of this opportunity they'd been given.

* * *

><p>Mal sat uneasily in the back of the 'ambulance' as it approached its destination. Esther had taken him aside just before they lifted off and warned him to keep a careful eye on Jayne during the job. What should he take from that warning? If she was actually on their side, that would mean she'd predicted there was a possibility that Jayne could do something to threaten the job. But, if she wasn't...well, she could have any number of motives for her words. Promoting discord among his crew for one. Setting up a fall guy for when her plan came into fruition for another.<p>

Mind you, Mal saw no way she could have a plan. He'd watched her movements closely over the past day, not that he'd really needed to, since whenever she left the couch she was always under the immediate watch of another crew member. She had done nothing suspcious. But it didn't take much to send a wave and warn the Feds, not to mention there was always the unsettling possibility that she had some card up her sleeve that she had yet to play...and that warning might be part of it. Either way, it did no harm to check in with Jayne who was, he had to admit, looking more nervous than he had any right to be.

"Are we gonna have a problem?" Mal asked, interrupting Jayne as he muttered to himself.

"I know what I gotta do," Jayne said distractedly.

"That's not what I'm talking about. Am I gonna have a problem with you and Simon?" Mal knew if Esther was telling the truth about Jayne, that's where the rub would come.

"That's up to him," Jayne said, sounding more like himself.

"Look, you got a little stabbed the other day. That's bound to make anyone a mite ornery, so I figure -" Mal started to say before Jayne cut him off.

"It's a good plan," Jayne said suddenly.

"What?" Mal asked, in shock that Jayne had paid Simon a compliment. There might be more to Esther's warning than he'd thought.

"The doc did good coming up with that job, don't mean I like him any better. Nothing buys bygones quicker than cash. Maybe I'll give him a tattoo while he's out," Jayne said.

"Let him do his thing, and then you get him out," Mal said, still a bit disturbed. "No messing with him for laughs." Mal would almost feel more comfortable if Jayne did try to give him a tattoo. It'd be more in character than the halfway compliment he'd just given Simon. What Mal liked about Jayne was that he was forthright. You always knew where he stood in things. There was a certainty in that, and a comfort in knowing how to deal with Jayne. At the moment, though, Mal was feeling considerably less comfortable than normal.

"Don't worry about me, as long as I get paid I'm happy," Jayne said.

Ah. A motive emerged. Of course Jayne was happy with the plan, it ended in money. More money than they'd made for a long time. That'd buy some good will, or something approaching that, between anyone, but particularly when it came to Jayne. Hell, with this kind of good will he might not have to worry about Jayne and Simon at all on this job. Mal felt reassured...that is, until he realized that if there weren't any problems with Jayne, that could only mean they were on Esther's end. What was that girl plotting?

* * *

><p>Mal stood on the landing pad outside of St Lucy's, surrounded by more loot than he'd ever known. He should be happy...but instead, he was feeling profoundly uneasy. Jayne, Simon, and River still hadn't come back yet.<p>

"Time?" he asked Zoe, already knowing the answer.

"Ten minutes past rendezvous," Zoe said immediately.

"Something's happened," Mal said. 他妈的, he'd thought he'd had everything covered. Jayne was fine, the girl hadn't so much as moved a muscle not under the crew's eyes, save to use the 厕所. But damn it, that window must have been all she'd needed to send a wave out.

In the background, he heard Wash asking Kaylee on the comm if there was a security alert in the hospital.

"Could be they're just late," Zoe said reassuringly, although he knew she was thinking the same thing he was.

"Not this late. Jayne would have sent up a flag," Mal said, again repeating the knowledge they both already had.

Kaylee's voice crackled over the comm. "Nothing from hospital security, nothing on the local pipeline, I am getting some weird chatter from the official two-six-two. Sounds like... They're talking about ducks."

"Code," Zoe said with certainty.

"Feds got 'em," Mal said, equally certain. He turned to address Wash. "Have her bring up a hospital schematic on the Cortex. Find me a way into that security substation. But before she does that…"

Mal picked up the communicator. "Shepherd?" he asked.

"Here," the man's voice came, grim and prepared. Mal suddenly found himself intensely glad he'd convinced the man not to get off at the Abbey. There was more to the man than met the eye, and with the unknown - make that previously unknown - variable of Esther on board, Mal had wanted to make sure he left a man he could trust behind on the ship. Kaylee, of course, was trustworthy, but she would never do what he was about to ask of the Shepherd. And judging from his voice, the man already knew what Mal required of him.

"Go get Esther. Chain her up and put her somewhere secure. Say, in the storage locker," Mal said, steaming with anger. "I'm fair certain she's the one behind this."

Faintly, Mal heard Kaylee gasp on the other end, but Shepherd grunted his assent. That, at least, was one less thing Mal had to worry about. Now, to rescue his crew.

* * *

><p>They had done it. Against all odds, they'd all managed to escape with their hides. Jayne, River, and Simon had literally been waiting by the back door of the security station for them, having already fought their way that far. It had been far easily than Mal had ever expected. He turned to Wash. "Tell me we weren't followed," Mal said, both a command and a question.<p>

"Nothing in our rearview the whole way back," Wash said confidently, clearly riding on the adrenaline rush of their escape.

"All right. Take us out of the world, as quick as you can," Mal told him. He'd be able to sort out matters more easily once they lifted off. Besides, for his plan for dealing with Esther to work, he needed to be in atmo.

"We'll be out of atmo in five minutes," Wash said, climbing out of the ambulance. Looking around, Mal saw Inara was back. That was a relief, if not they'd have to have gone back for her later.

"Everyone, make yourself useful, you've got jobs to do, go do 'em," Mal ordered. "Jayne, you stay with me. I want you to tell me what happened back there."

"Aw, Mal, we got busted by the Feds. Coulda happened to anyone," Jayne said.

"And you played absolutely no role in that? Weren't tempted by the reward money for your two least favorite people?" Mal said, watching Jayne's face closely.

"Hell, Mal, what are you saying?!" Jayne responded defensively. "That I did this?!"

"No," Mal said, letting himself visibly relax. "Just checking. In that case, let's go deal with the girl that did."

"你说什么了？" Jayne asked in confusion.

"You have Esther to thank for your brush with law enforcement today," Mal said. "Don't you want to go thank her?"

"Uh, yeah," Jayne mumbled, slow on the up-take. "I just can't believe she'd do somethin' like this," he said in apparent disbelief.

"Well, to be honest, I wasn't sure either," Mal told him. "Believe it or not, she'd actually tried to pin the blame on you, of all people."

"Me?!" Jayne said, sounding genuinely indignant.

"Yeah. Before we left, she told me to watch out for you. That's why I was asking you all those questions on the ride over," Mal told him as they climbed the stairs to the kitchen. "But it's clearly not you. So that leaves only one possibility - her."

"Why her?" Jayne asked. "Me, I think it was just plain bad luck, us gettin' pinched. Don't mean she was behind it."

"I didn't tell you earlier, on account of not being sure, but this whole time I've thought Esther might be a spy," Mal said, figuring now was as good a time as any to let Jayne in on his suspicions.

"What?!" Jayne said, in shock.

"Yeah. Tonight's job was her test - if it went wrong, I'd know she was working against us. As you may have noticed, she failed the test," Mal said grimly.

"Aren't you overreactin' just a little? We don't even know for sure yet!" Jayne protested, as they neared the door.

"I have my ways of finding out," Mal said, opening the door to the storage locker. "And somethin' tells me she's not gonna like 'em."

* * *

><p>Jayne found himself in the oddest position. He was coming out of the day the luckiest man alive. Not only had he escaped who knows what back at the security station, but he was coming back to a ship full of a whole lotta loot. And no one, save Mal, even suspected he'd been the one to report them to the Feds, and now even Mal believed he didn't do it. Simon'd even thanked him for being such a hero. Granted, Jayne hated himself a little bit (why'd Simon have to go and thank him?!) but short of actually having collected the reward, the day'd gone off better than he could have ever expected.<p>

But Mal'd decided that if Jayne wasn't the one who'd done it, it had to be Esther. And now Jayne was standing in horror in front of the dark storage locker, illuminated only by the light now pouring in from the kitchen. The girl was laying on the floor, limp as always, hands and feet chained in front of her with shackles that gleamed silver in the light, though someone had been kind enough to put a pillow under her head. Esther looked at him, obviously struggling to see as she adjusted to the light. Even squinting, though, it was clear to Jayne that her eyes were looking straight through his soul.

"-Jayne!" Mal's voice said sharply, carving its way through Jayne's thoughts. "Do I need to repeat myself?! Pick her up and carry her down to the cargo bay. We need to work fast!"

Mechanically, Jayne felt himself stoop and take the - too light - girl into his arms. Her huge eyes stared at him all the while. Damn it if it didn't remind him of carrying Mattie to bed all those years ago. He turned and followed Mal down the stairs, still lost in thought. How was he going to be able to convince Mal that it wasn't her without getting his own self in the same situation? Surely Mal had to see how unreasonable the way they were treating the girl was.

Apparently he'd said that part out loud, because Mal replied, "We coulda been killed today. You, me, Zoe, Wash, Simon, River, all six of us. And I can't have someone on board that's a threat to the ship. If she admits to it and tells us the Alliance plot behind this whole thing - you hear this, Esther?! - we'll let her live. If not, well, there's a reason I'm about to have you put her in the airlock."

"But Mal!" Jayne protested.

"That's an order, Jayne," Mal said, steel in his voice as he opened up the inner door of the airlock. "And put the communicator in her hand."

Again, Jayne felt his body move to follow the orders, as reluctant as his mind might feel about them. He placed her gently, oh so gently, to the ground, avoiding meeting her eyes. Jayne backed away slowly and the airlock closed in front of him.

"Now," Mal said. "Let's let some air in." To Jayne's further horror, Mal pushed the button and opened the outside door. A crack, just a crack, was all he opened it, but Jayne knew the air'd get awful thin in there, awful fast. And as soon as they left atmo...well, that'd be it for the girl.

"I've been wanting to have the chat with you for a long time now," Mal said mock-warmly to Esther. "But unfortunately it's going to have to be a short talk, because it's going to start getting awfully cold out there awfully fast. I'll make this easy for you. 'Fess up and tell us the plot behind this and we may let you live. Don't and...well, I think you can predict what'll happen."

"I can," Esther said, her voice eerily calm. "I can predict everything." Was it just Jayne or was that statement directed at him?

"Yes, so you've told us," Mal said. "Doesn't seem to have done you a lot of good this time around, though."

"You understand, though, I don't know you that well, so I may not be interpreting this right. Just to make sure I'm clear," Esther said through the communicator, still lying bound on the ground in the airlock. "If I told you that it was not, in fact, me who tipped off the Feds and that it was actually someone else. What would you do?"

Jayne felt his heart simultaneously sink and rise. He was about to get what was coming to him, but he knew he'd earned it. He may not have had the courage to confess on his own, but she was about to do it for him. There was almost a relief to that. Finally, things were playing out the way they ought to.

"Well, I'm not an unfair captain. I'd treat 'em same as you, pop 'em in the airlock and let them learn how to fly," Mal said.

"Jesus, Mal, what a way to go! Wouldn't you want to, you know, shoot them or somethin', have at least a little mercy?!" Jayne burst out unthinkingly.

"Well, no," Mal said, shooting him a strange look. "But it shouldn't matter to you, right?" he asked.

"No, it shouldn't," Esther's voice came over the comm, interrupting the two of them. She looked directly into his eyes, and in that moment, Jayne realized, without a doubt, that she knew he'd done it. "You're right, Captain, I did it. I've been working undercover for the Alliance on your ship for a long time now. Now will you let me in?" she asked.

Shit! That wasn't what she was supposed to say! Damn it, why she'd have to go take the fall like that?! Why was she covering for him, the guy who only the day before had tried to get her kicked off the boat?! What had he ever done to earn this kind of mercy from her?

Well, since she'd confessed, at least Jayne didn't have to worry about her getting thrown out the airlock anymore. When Mal let her in and locked her up again, Jayne could help her escape. If he propped her up right, he would bet the girl'd be able to pilot the storage shuttle out. If she could fly. Hell, he'd figure out how when it came down to it, but the point was he'd help her get out.

"No," Mal said. Jayne felt his jaw drop with disbelief. Mal really was going to let the girl die! She was going to die and it was going to be all his fault, and he should never have reported Simon and River to the Feds and he could never have expected this and -

"Damn it, Mal, it was me!" Jayne burst out. "Close the door and let her in! Only don't put me out there. Shoot me, stab me, whatever, but don't let me die like that. No one deserves to die like that."

"You're right," Mal said. "They don't." And with the punch of two buttons, the outside door was closed and the inner airlock was opened. Esther, who had previously looked so composed, took a deep gasp of air. Immediately, Jayne moved to her and started removing her manacles.

"But you see, I'm not the one who'll do the deciding," Mal continued ominously. "As the one who put her life on the line for you, I think Esther deserves the right to decide."

God, please not the airlock. Anything but the airlock. Or Reavers, Jayne thought, looking into her eyes and wishing she could read minds instead of just predicting the future.

"Don't kill him," she said simply to Mal, having mostly recovered from her brief oxygen deprivation. Her fingers and lips were a bit blue around the edges, and Jayne found himself rubbing her hands to get the circulation back into them before he registered what she said. She had saved him. Again.

"Why?" Jayne asked her, unable to put anything else into words.

"Because you're a good man," Esther said. "I knew you wouldn't let me die."

She had had faith in him. Maybe the only person ever to do so. And as he looked into her eyes, he knew he owed her his eternal loyalty.

* * *

><p>"You knew it was him," Esther said to Mal, matter of factly. Jayne, still shaken from the experience, had left the bay, and though the other crew members had come to help with the unloading of the medicine, no one was paying attention to the two of them and Mal felt he owed Esther a chat after what he'd put her through.<p>

"I wasn't sure," Mal said.

"But you were almost. How did you know that would work?"

"You know, I used to be a religious man. And there's a story in the Book, of two women who went to a wise king to help them figure out who was a baby's mother. The king said, 'Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other," Mal spoke, quoting from memory of the words of a book he'd long since lost faith in. "Then spake the woman whose living child was unto the king, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. It's not quite the same situation as with you two, but it helped me make a plan."

"So that's what you did with us," Esther said. "You didn't know which one of us it was, so you threatened to kill me, knowing Jayne wouldn't let me die if he'd done it."

"He's a better man than he thinks," Mal said. "But if it wasn't him and it really was you, then I would have taken care of that problem. I allow no one on this ship who is a threat to my crew," he said, his tone turning darker. She'd passed this test, yes, but though he felt more comfortable with her, he still didn't entirely trust the girl.

"Well, I'm glad you decided I wasn't the threat," Esther said. "Next time, though, maybe just ask me?"

Mal laughed. "I am sorry about that. You bein' an oracle, though, I figured you'd know what my plan was!"

"I didn't," Esther said solemnly. "I mean, it was a possibility, but…I never know anything for certain."

Mal sobered. "So you really were willing to put your life down for him." That was unexpected. A girl who could easily out figure him in chess, who could simply look at a ball and tell you where it was going to land, who predicted the Alliance all the way to their victory in the Unification War - well, he'd thought a girl like that would be able to predict his own character a bit better. But in retrospect, she had said that she had trouble predicting what a single individual was going to do...

"I guess so," Esther said, as if shocked by her own words.

"In that case: 真对不起. I won't do that again - unless you've really earned it," Mal replied. He really did mean his apology, too. Had he known...actually, he admitted to himself, had he known she couldn't predict what was happening, he would have done things the exact same way. The girl gave him more credit than he deserved - he'd figured it out as he'd gone, of course, but in reality, he really had thought it was her, and only a wiggling thread of doubt in his mind (which Esther had actually planted) had led him to suspect Jayne.

"Apology accepted," Esther said, still seemingly mulling over her own actions. Kaylee gestured for Mal to come over and he complied.

"And Esther?" Mal called as he walked away. "Welcome to the crew."

* * *

><p>That night, a burst went out over the cortex. No name, just two words.<p>

"I'm in."

* * *

><p>AN: So! I updated! That is ridiculously exciting for me...the fact that I updated with the longest chapter (over 6,000 words!) I've written so far is even more exciting! It took me five hours to write this whole thing, so don't get used to this, I felt ridiculously selfish for just taking time to write...but it was so much fun!

Please remember, I'm operating under my new principle, post first, edit later. That's in an effort to keep the time between updates shorter. It's not going to help too much - I know, come Fall, I may go as much as six months between updates (I'm starting grad school and I hear free time, which is already scarce, becomes mythical once you enter grad school) - but I'm doing everything I can to try and help with that.

There is some original dialogue from the episode scattered in here, by the way. Please know, it's not mine, I'm not trying to claim credit to it. It's just that, while the presence of Esther does change things (and yes, this change will snowball) it doesn't fundamentally alter some of the ways things turned out.

Opportunities for feedback: I would love to hear you guys' thoughts on two subjects. First, do you think I kept everyone in character? I was a bit worried about Mal in this chapter, particularly since I binge wrote it and haven't edited yet, so feedback is appreciated. And second, what do you guys think about Esther now that you've read the message at the end?

Thanks for reading and please review!

-The Disappearing Me


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